What Is Environmental History

What is environmental history? It is a kind of history that seeks understanding of human beings as they have lived, worked, and thought in relationship to the rest of nature through the changes brought by time. In this new edition of his seminal student textbook, J. Donald Hughes provides a masterful overview of the thinkers, topics, and perspectives that have come to constitute the exciting discipline that is environmental history. He does so on a global scale, drawing together disparate trends from a rich variety of countries into a unified whole, illuminating trends and key themes in the process. Those already familiar with the discipline will find themselves invited to think about the subject in a new way. This new edition has been updated to reflect recent developments, trends, and new work in environmental history, as well as a brand new note on its possible future. Students and scholars new to environmental history will find the book both an indispensable guide and a rich source of inspiration for future work.

A timely work, this book showcases articles by leading Canadian and international historians interested in environmental action and policy, including Colin M. Coates, Ramsay Cooke, Ken Cruikshank, and Donald Worster.

Now in its second edition and refreshed by a decade of new research, The Environment in World History uncovers the deep-rooted causes of interconnected climate, biodiversity, and ecological crises that have brought the environment to the top of the global political agenda in the twenty-first century. Its expanded chapters and case studies explore a wide range of issues including the following: the hunting of wildlife and the loss of biodiversity across the globe; deforestation and the development of strategies to protect the world’s forests; soil degradation caused by worldwide agricultural expansion, one of the most profound ways that humans have altered the planet; the widening impact of urban-industrial growth and the deepening ecological footprints of the world’s cities; and the rising levels of air, land and water pollution as the trade-off for continued economic growth worldwide. Covering the last five hundred years, it offers an essential environmental perspective on well-known world history narratives of imperialism and colonialism, trade and commerce, technological progress and the advance of civilisation. Clearly written and fully up-to-date, it is an invaluable resource for all students of world history and environmental studies.

One of the oldest metropolitan areas in North America, Montreal has evolved from a remote fur-trading post in New France into an international center for services and technology. A city and an island located at the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers, it is uniquely situated to serve as an international port while also providing rail access to the Canadian interior. The historic capital of the Province of Canada, once Canada's foremost metropolis, Montreal has a multifaceted cultural heritage drawn from European and North American influences. Thanks to its rich past, the city offers an ideal setting for the study of an evolving urban environment. Metropolitan Natures presents original histories of the diverse environments that constitute Montreal and it region. It explores the agricultural and industrial transformation of the metropolitan area, the interaction of city and hinterland, and the interplay of humans and nature. The fourteen chapters cover a wide range of issues, from landscape representations during the colonial era to urban encroachments on the Kahnawake Mohawk reservation on the south shore of the island, from the 1918-1920 Spanish flu epidemic and its ensuing human environmental modifications to the urban sprawl characteristic of North America during the postwar period. Situations that politicize the environment are discussed as well, including the economic and class dynamics of flood relief, highways built to facilitate recreational access for the middle class, power-generating facilities that invade pristine rural areas, and the elitist environmental hegemony of fox hunting. Additional chapters examine human attempts to control the urban environment through street planning, waterway construction, water supply, and sewerage.

Traces how Canada’s colonial and national development contributed to modern environmental problems such as urban sprawl, the collapse of fisheries, and climate change Includes over 200 photographs, maps, figures, and sidebar discussions on key figures, concepts, and cases Offers concise definitions of environmental concepts Ties Canadian history to issues relevant to contemporary society Introduces students to a new, dynamic approach to the past Throughout history most people have associated northern North America with wilderness – with abundant fish and game, snow-capped mountains, and endless forest and prairie. Canada’s contemporary picture gallery, however, contains more disturbing images – deforested mountains, empty fisheries, and melting ice caps. Adopting both a chronological and thematic approach, Laurel MacDowell examines human interactions with the land, and the origins of our current environmental crisis, from first peoples to the Kyoto Protocol. This richly illustrated exploration of the past from an environmental perspective will change the way Canadians and others around the world think about – and look at – Canada.

This book is an introductory instrument to the main themes of environmental history, illustrating its development over time, methodological implications, results achieved and those still under discussion. But the overriding aspiration is to show that the doubts, methods and knowledge elaborated by environmental history have a heuristic value that is far from negligible precisely in its attitude to the most consolidated major historiography. For this reason, this book gives an overview of environmental history as it is an essential component of the basic knowledge of global history. At the same time, it introduces specific aspects which are useful both for anyone wanting to deepen his/her studies of environmental historiography and for those interested in one of the many disciplinary areas – from rural history to urban history, from the history of technology to the history of public health, etc. with which environmental history develops a dialogue.

The World Water Development Report 2003 pointed out the extensive problem that: 'Sadly, the tragedy of the water crisis is not simply a result of lack of water but is, essentially, one of poor water governance.' Cross-sectional and historical intra-national and international comparisons have been recognized as a valuable method of study in different sectors of human life, including technologies and governance. Environmental History of Water fills this gap, with its main focus being on water and sanitation services and their evolution. Altogether 34 authors have written 30 chapters for this multidisciplinary book which divides into four chronological parts, from ancient cultures to the challenges of the 21st century, each with its introduction and conclusions written by the editors. The authors represent such disciplines as history of technology, history of public health, public policy, development studies, sociology, engineering and management sciences. This book emphasizes that the history of water and sanitation services is strongly linked to current water management and policy issues, as well as future implications. Geographically the book consists of local cases from all inhabited continents. The key penetrating themes of the book include especially population growth, health, water consumption, technological choices and governance. There is great need for general, long-term analysis at the global level. Lessons learned from earlier societies help us to understand the present crisis and challenges. This new book, Environmental History of Water, provides this analysis by studying these lessons.

Cover -- Series Page -- Full Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- 1: Navigating Northern Environmental History -- Part 1: Forming Northern Colonial Environments -- 2: Moving through the Margins:The "All-Canadian" Route tothe Klondike and the StrangeExperience of the Teslin Trail -- 3: The Experimental State of Nature: Science and the Canadian Reindeer Project in the Interwar North -- 4: Shaped by the Land: An Envirotechnical History of a Canadian Bush Plane -- 5: Many Tiny Traces: Antimodernism and Northern Exploration Between the Wars -- Part 2: Transformations and the Modern North -- 6: From Subsistence to Nutrition: The Canadian State's Involvement in Food and Diet in the North,1900-1970 -- 7: Hope in the Barrenlands: Northern Development and Sustainability's Canadian History -- 8: Western Electric Turns North: Technicians and the Transformation of the Cold War Arctic -- Part 3: Environmental History and the Contemporary North -- 9: "That's the Place Where I Was Born": History, Narrative Ecology, and Politics in Canada's North -- 10: Imposing Territoriality: First Nation Land Claims and the Transformation of Human-Environment Relations in the Yukon -- 11: Ghost Towns and Zombie Mines: The Historical Dimensions of Mine Abandonment, Reclamation, and Redevelopment in the Canadian North -- 12: Toxic Surprises: Contaminants and Knowledgein the Northern Environment -- 13: Climate Anti-Politics: Scale, Locality, and Arctic Climate Change -- Conclusion -- 14: Encounters in Northern Environmental History -- Contributors -- Index