Steinberg, an environmental historian at Case Western Reserve University, examines the dynamic interactions between America's economic, political and cultural institutions and its geography, plants, animals and natural resources. He presents two predominant themes. The first is that the ecological balance is precarious and can be undermined, even completely destroyed, by unintended changes that flow from the smallest of events. The second is that the capitalist impulse to treat everything within its horizon as a commodity, and the corollary compulsion to assign a dollar value to every commodity, is fundamentally at odds with the existence of the diverse and healthy ecosystems that existed prior to the country's settlement.

Vectorworks 2008 Download Full. Steinberg makes a strong case, choosing examples that range from the environmental changes that followed the mysterious extinction of the carrier pigeon to the ecological effects of the mundane—garbage disposals, lawns, highways, pesticides and even the salt spread on roads to melt snow—to demonstrate his points. He is a historian with strong opinions, and in later chapters political commentary is increasingly prominent. Much of his commentary will offend conservative readers, who will disagree with Steinberg's harsh attacks on American business. For example, he chides the meatpacking industry for 'corporate slaughterhouses [that] dehumanized workers' and the biotechnology industry because 'feeding the malnourished has never been the driving force behind [it].

Profits, more than people, motivated this bold new science.' Interestingly, he is also critical of mainstream environmental groups, who he believes have been coopted by contributions from corporations. Steinberg ( Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America) is provocative, backing up his opinions with facts and well-honed arguments, and it will be hard to ignore his major theses. The writing is professional although occasionally stilted. 65 b&w photos, 5 maps not seen by PW. Agent, Michele Rubin.

Hist 3144: American Environmental History Reading Guide for Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth In this book, Ted Steinberg offers a sweeping and very readable synthesis of American environmental history from the break-up of Pangea to the present. We will be dipping into parts of this book throughout the semester. I want you to bring in your questions and comments for our discussions, but to give you a bit more guidance on things to keep an eye out for as you read the first several chapters of this book, I have put together this reading guide.

Authors often lay out their argument in the preface. Reading them carefully is a good idea. What is the goal of this book? How have historians tended to view the environment? How does Steinberg want them to change their view? What three turning points does he stress?

Ing from the heavens toward Earth. Thus, the stars appear. Imagine2.pdf (accessed 30 August 2016). To stop the count- down. Yet the small crowd of astrophysicists and engineers isn't looking up. Their gaze is fixed on the launch site a few miles away, where, in a few moments, a rocket will ignite and either.

What is the overall argument (presented near the end of the preface)? Why does Steinberg begin with Pangea? Why does America's 'place on the globe' need to be taken seriously?

Why is the continent so suitable for agriculture? What natural resources are found there? What effect did glaciation have? What does he mean when he talks about the earth being taken seriously as an actor? Chapter 1: Wilderness Under Fire 7. How do we typically think about Indians and their relationship with the land? How does Steinberg challenge this view?

What are the Pleistocene extinctions (overkill) and what implications do they have? What is the significance of the debate about native American populations? What does Steinberg mean by the chapter heading 'Many Egg Baskets?' How did Indians manipulate their environment? What kind of agriculture did they pursue? What two points about their relationship with the land does Steinberg stress? How did Indians view nature?

Why did Indians light fires? What impact did they have? Was America a pristine wilderness at the time of first European contact? Chapter 2: A Truly New World 14. What role did the environment play in the downfall of the Roanoke and Jamestown settlements?

What is the 'Little Ice Age?' Why did native Americans lack immunities to many epidemic diseases? What happened when Europeans arrived on the continent? What percentage of Indians died from epidemic disease? Which diseases were most deadly and why? What besides diseases did Europeans introduce into the New World? The historian Alfred Crosby has written a great deal about this process.

He refers to the movement of organisms between the Old and New World as the 'Columbia exchange'; and he refers to the process of biological takeover of the New World as 'ecological imperialism.' What crops did Europeans take back from the New World to the Old?

What cultural beliefs that impacted the land did Europeans introduce to the New World? How did Indians view property? What consequences did the fur trade have? What does he mean by 'commodification' and 'transatlantic commerce?' How were America's woodlands brought into the orbit of this commerce?

Why some forests depleted and what consequences did this have? What motivated Europeans to journey to North America? What does the term 'ecological windfall' mean? What impact did they have? Did Europeans manage to liberate themselves from the constraints imposed by the natural world?

Chapter 3: Reflections from a Woodlot 21. Note the introduction to Henry D. Thoreau, about whom we will be reading more soon.

What is an ecosystem? What does Steinberg mean when he says that farming is always a 'battle with the natural world, a struggle to keep nature from doing what comes naturally?'

How did early American farmers transform the landscape? What is 'extensive' farming? What happened when Europeans introduced their own crops and livestock? Tais Toi Free Download Torrent. How did they respond?

What does 'Simplifying nature had its costs' mean? Who was Thomas Malthus, and why does Steinberg mention him? What were the effects of the Malthusian crunch in New England? How did the climate change between 1750 and 1780? What effects did volcanic eruptions have? Why does Steinberg mention this? What role did climate play in western migration?

What other factors promoted the movement toward the west? Why did New England shift to from 'subsistence' to 'commercial agriculture?' What is entailed in the shift from 'extensive' to 'intensive' agriculture?

Chapter 4: A World of Commodities 28. Steinberg's comments about the commodification of nature in the introduction are really crucial to understanding this book--pay attention! In the remained of the chapter he gives several examples of how this process actually worked and discusses some of its implications. What does he mean by the claim that industrialization was not simply a techno-economic system, but also 'an ecological regime based on the streamlining of nature.' How does the shift in use of rivers exemplify this trend? What ecological transformations accompanied this process?

What was the U.S. Rectangular Land Survey, and what implications did it have for the landscape?

What impact did railroads and grain-grading systems have? To what uses was wood put? Why was pine in such demand? How did the business of lumbering change between 1860 and 1890? What facilitated the commercialization of lumbering? Why were logs floated on rivers rather than shipped by rail?

Who was Frederick Weyerhauser, and why does Steinberg mention him? How did the federal government subsidize large-scale lumber production? What effects on the land did it have? How and why was the passenger pigeon pushed to extinction? What is the moral of this story? In the conclusion, what impact did conceiving of nature as commodities?

Chapter 8: The Unforgiving West (pp. How many bison once roamed the plains? Why did the the Plains Indians begin specializing on the bison? What impact did they have? What caused the demise of the bison?

What technologies promoted/facilitated their destruction? What role did the federal government play in this process? What lessons does the decline of these species tell? Chapter 9: Conservation Reconsidered 35. What point is Steinberg trying to make in his introduction?

What gets lost in the usual story of the development of conservation vs. What does this expanded story of conservation reveal? What united conservationism and preservationism in the conventional story of conservation thinking?

What were Pinchot's views of national forests and how they should be managed? What did this view fail to take into account?

What is Steinberg's view of fire suppression efforts in the national foresets? What effect did a viewpoint emphasizing efficiency have on the nation's wildlife? How was wildlife managed in the first half of the twentieth century? What species were targeted for extermination? What impact did predator-control campaigns have? Why were the first national parks created (more later on this when you read Nash)?

Who backed the creation of Yellowstone, and why? Why does Steinberg say that advocated for Yellowstone were 'inventing' rather than 'preserving' a wilderness area there? What group(s) were excluded from its boundaries? What did the Supreme Court say about the exclusion of native Americans? What challenges did park officials face when managing game in the park? In the concluding section, what is Steinberg's point about conservation?

What contradictions and ironies surround national park history? Chapter 10: Death of the Organic City 40. What does the title mean? What did cities look like by the end of the nineteenth century?

What did progressive reformers accomplish? At what cost? Why role did pigs play in urban ecology? What about horses? How was sewage handled in mid-nineenth-century cities?

How and why did that change? What happened with the introduction of modern toilets? What happened to the human waste then? What environmental effects did the dumping of raw sewage in waterways have? How was garbage recycled before the 1870s? Why did this system break down?

Who were the sanitary reformers, and what did they seek to do? What happened to the garbage once it was collected? What was the irony of reforms in garbage handling? What were the virtues of the clean-up of cities? And what were the effects?