Author:
Dant, Sara, 1967- author.
Edition Statement:New edition.
ImprintLincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2023]
Descriptionxiii, 365 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
Note:Introduction: The Nature of the West -- Losing "Eden" -- The West Transformed -- Claiming and Taming the Land -- The Great Barbecue -- The Pivotal Decade -- Conservation and Preservation -- Roll On -- Booming the West -- Building Consensus -- Environmental Backlash and the New West -- The Last Frontier -- Epilogue: Our Lonely Planet.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"Historical narratives often concentrate on wars and politics while omitting the central role and influence of the physical stage on which history is carried out. In Losing Eden award-winning historian Sara Dant debunks the myth of the American West as "Eden" and instead embraces a more realistic and complex understanding of a region that has been inhabited and altered by people for tens of thousands of years. In this lively narrative Dant discusses the key events and topics in the environmental history of the American West, from the Beringia migration, Columbian Exchange, and federal territorial acquisition to post-World War II expansion, resource exploitation, and current climate change issues. Losing Eden is structured around three important themes: balancing economic success and ecological destruction, creating and protecting public lands, and achieving sustainability. This revised and updated edition incorporates the latest science and thinking. It also features a new chapter on climate change in the American West, a larger reflection on the region's multicultural history, updated current events, expanded and diversified suggested readings, along with new maps and illustrations. Cohesive and compelling, Losing Eden recognizes the central role of the natural world in the history of the American West and provides important analysis on the continually evolving relationship between the land and its inhabitants."-- Provided by publisher.
