Description
Book SynopsisEnvironmental History as a distinct discipline is now over a generation old, with a large and diverse group of practitioners around the globe. This book provides a reflection on the achievements, diversity, and direction of environmental history in its varied national, international and continental contexts.
Trade Review'Nature's End is both an adept explanation of the ways in which historians can make the environment a central theme, and a treasure trove packed with gems of essays by leading scholars who show how it is done. This book is a state-of-the-art guide to contemporary questions in global environmental history.'
- J. Donald Hughes, University of Denver, USA
'This volume makes a contribution not only to the history of the environment, but also to its historiography and to the history of thought about the environment It contributes to bridge-building between disciplines and also to a dialogue with other kinds of historian, whether they work on politics or culture.'
- Peter Burke, University of Cambridge, UK
'Leading scholars of environmental history clarify the discipline's epistemological context
and offer compelling case studies. Nature's End is indispensable reading for all who seek to meld the various communities of knowledge of our world.'
- Carole Crumley, University of North Carolina, USA
'Nature's End deserves a wide audience. Environmental historians of all sorts will find it useful, as few such collections can boast such a rich and diverse array of contributions, ranging widely in geographical and chronological scope and presenting several methodological and conceptual approaches.' - William Cavert, H-Environment
'...thought-provoking...Hopefully, this volume will guide environmental and cultural historians towards fruitful interaction.' - European History Quarterly
Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors Preface Introduction; S.Sörlin & P.Warde PART I: THE RISE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL Imperialism and Environmental Change: Unearthing the Origins and Evolution of Global Environmental History; R.Grove & V.Damodaran Habitat, Possession and Community: Reflections on the History of Conservation Ideas; B.Adams The Field of Action: Agriculture and the Defining of the Environment in Pre-Industrial Europe; P.Warde The Global Warming That Did Not Happen: Historicizing Glaciology and Climate Change; S.Sörlin Genealogies of the Ecological Moment: Planning, Complexity and the Emergence of 'the Environment' as Politics in West Germany, 1949-1982; H.Nehring PART II: HISTORY AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES The Environmental History of Mountain Regions; R.Dodgshon Interdisciplinary Conversations: the Collective Model; A.Davies New Science for Sustainability in an Ancient Land; L.Robin PART III: MAKING SPACE: ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR CONTEXTS Fifty-four, Forty, or Fight? Writing within and across Boundaries in North American Environmental History; M.Evenden & G.Wynn Modernity and the Politics of Waste in Britain; T.Cooper Why Intensity? Reflections on Long-Term Changes to Chinese Farming and the Institutional Steering of Modifications to the Environment; M.Elvin 'The pernicious calamities that occasion...hunger': Climate Variability and Social Vulnerability in Colonial Mexico; G.Endfield PART IV: 'THINGS HUMAN' Destiny and Decision: Taking the Lifeworld Seriously in Environmental History; K.Hastrup Afterword; P.Burke Index
