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The best kind of book, one that shocks the reader into entirely fresh ways of thinking.--Michael Pollan
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Nature or people? The aim of legislating humans out of the wilderness is no solution to our environmental problems, argues this book - a timely reassessment of the environmentalist agenda by outstanding historians, scientists, and critics.
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THE TIME HAS COME TO RETHINK WILDERNESS. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE TIME HAS COME TO RETHINK WILDERNESS. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Cronon's book is one invaluable source of knowledge on the current environmental state. The collected essays offer varied views of the same reality: nature in its true, stripped off condition. No beautiful words and utopian dreams. But a useful picture of the kinds of varied and highly complex relations between humans and the environment. A much treasured account for those readers who problematize about the deep connections of man with the natural world and the multiple ways in which we inescapably constantly transform it to serve our high-tec, post-industrial, post-modern insatiable civilization.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Cronon provides an excellent selection of commentaries by some of the most influential writers (notably Haraway) on the topic of 'What is nature?' fully examining time and space issues. This text gives an in-depth insight into society's perceptions of nature and it's conservation something which is of major current interest. Although fairly US-orientated, this book has been vital for my studies of environmentalism (part of the Geography undergrad course at Oxford University) and I especially enjoyed White's contribution: "Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?".
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7 reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Rethinking is the right word
21 Sep 2004
Format:Paperback
Being an environmentalist isn't just about enjoying the outdoors or recycling. This is an in depth study of the complex interactions between humans and our world and an examination of our historical and cultural relationship with our environment. In particular, I found the discussion of our meaning for the word and our concept of nature to be particularly enlightening. There is simply no place in the world that isn't touched by human impact and noone on the planet who isn't touched by our environment and what we do to it. A MUST for anyone serious about the study of environmental study.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
THEORIZING THE ENVIRONMENT: NOT JUST FOR SCIENTISTS
25 July 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is indeed about "rethinking" the environment outside of the usual realms of political advocacy. The editor, William Cronon, is an historian, and this book is the result of a multi-disciplinary conference of scholars working in surprising niches of environmental studies.
What makes this anthology so important is that many of the essays in it emphasize that our views of the environment, nature, and wilderness are "narratives" that are entangled with religion, culture, politics, and race--not just science. Cronon's introduction explores the concept of "wilderness" through time to the modern preservationist notion of a pristine, human-free zone, and the quandary that idea presents: wilderness preservation requires that all humans be removed from it.
This anthology contains essays about: the "Eden narrative" in Amazonian environmentalism (the Times reported today that the Amazon's indigenous cultures are now extinct); architecture and green space; what the "work" of an environmentalist entails; the role of nationalism in the creation of the park system; a study of the cladistics of ecological thinking in the 1950s; environmentalism as social justice in the inner city, and an essay by Donna Haraway about the role of race and "nature" in science.
My favorite essay, way ahead of its time, is by N. Katherine Hayles, "Simulated Nature and Natural Simulations." This essay addresses the epistemological problem in the distinguishing between the natural and the artificial, exemplified by two studies: the classical ethological modeling of animals as machines and the claim or right to aliveness for a-life computer parasites.
"Uncommon Ground" is just a dip in the waters. Sorely missing from this volume is E.O. Wilson's theory of "biophilia," which has been forgotten by almost everyone but selfish-gene proponents. Also missing is an economist's perspective of how industry's "use value" of a resource explodes beyond the point where it can be gauged in an environmental context. Take Superfund sites or the current oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A quick profit on a resource--boosting workers for a time--can ultimately destroy their property values, recreational and subsistence use of wildlife, and the priceless and unknown values of ancestral/family claims, biodiversity, and health for decades, if not all time.
What makes this anthology so important is that many of the essays in it emphasize that our views of the environment, nature, and wilderness are "narratives" that are entangled with religion, culture, politics, and race--not just science. Cronon's introduction explores the concept of "wilderness" through time to the modern preservationist notion of a pristine, human-free zone, and the quandary that idea presents: wilderness preservation requires that all humans be removed from it.
This anthology contains essays about: the "Eden narrative" in Amazonian environmentalism (the Times reported today that the Amazon's indigenous cultures are now extinct); architecture and green space; what the "work" of an environmentalist entails; the role of nationalism in the creation of the park system; a study of the cladistics of ecological thinking in the 1950s; environmentalism as social justice in the inner city, and an essay by Donna Haraway about the role of race and "nature" in science.
My favorite essay, way ahead of its time, is by N. Katherine Hayles, "Simulated Nature and Natural Simulations." This essay addresses the epistemological problem in the distinguishing between the natural and the artificial, exemplified by two studies: the classical ethological modeling of animals as machines and the claim or right to aliveness for a-life computer parasites.
"Uncommon Ground" is just a dip in the waters. Sorely missing from this volume is E.O. Wilson's theory of "biophilia," which has been forgotten by almost everyone but selfish-gene proponents. Also missing is an economist's perspective of how industry's "use value" of a resource explodes beyond the point where it can be gauged in an environmental context. Take Superfund sites or the current oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A quick profit on a resource--boosting workers for a time--can ultimately destroy their property values, recreational and subsistence use of wildlife, and the priceless and unknown values of ancestral/family claims, biodiversity, and health for decades, if not all time.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Should be required reading for all natural resource/ecology undergrads
23 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback
Much in this book is worth the time to read. But Cronon's essay "The trouble with wilderness: or getting back to the wrong nature" should be required reading for all natural resource - ecology - environmental science students. I came to this essay in graduate school and it put words to vague feelings of uneasiness I had been developing while doing seasonal work in natural resources after getting my bachelors. It literally brought tears to my eyes - which is saying something for a piece of academic essay writing. It's brilliant and worth getting the book for.
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