The Republic of Nature

An Environmental History of the United States
Mark Fiege

I had been looking forward to this book for a year when I first heard about it (2 years ago) and when it was finally released last year, I immediately picked it up. And then struggled through it for the past year. Maybe it is me, that my scholarly reading chops aren't ready for prime time. But I am going to say it is a much Fiege's fault that I did not read this in one sitting. Here is the rundown:

Fiege presents nine significant events in American History and tells the story while paying attention to the influences and affects of the environment. This is simultaneously fascinating and obvious. For example, the chapter on the Salem witch trials raises the issues of land use, overpopulation, population density based diseases for humans and livestock as underlying factors that put constant pressure on the early settlers. These factors were overlooked or unknown, which left only the religious/supernatural explanations available. Wow, and duh! In the chapter on the transcontinental railroad, Fiege reminds us of the massive labor and resource issues that were both motivation for the railroad companies as well as hinderances to their success. These labor/resource issues affected broad swaths of land and people both during construction as well as for decades after. This is not just an industrial or economic achievement. Wow, and duh! The same sort of new lens is offered for Brown v. Board of Education, Cotton & Slavery, the Civil War and the OPEC oil embargo of the 1970's. This is all fascinating.

So why did it take me a year to read? Fiege meanders. In nearly every chapter, I had to discover his point. Why are you writing this? What is the environmental connection? For the chapter on Lincoln, the best I could discern is that Lincoln chopped wood as a kid, and that changed his being as a human and the course of the United States. The Manhattan Project was somehow a reflection of knocking over pine trees to build housing at Los Alamos National Lab. The connections were not strong. Even when the environmental connections were strong and clear, Fiege still meanders, as if he is working to tell a story instead of write a scholarly historical text. But it was too obviously work for him and he ended up loosing focus nearly every stage of the way.

I think this material is fascinating and I would recommend reading individual chapters based on your interest or study of that subject. Much like a text, each chapter can be taken individually and does not hang on the prior. With that method, you will find this worth read, and more importantly, worth discussing with someone.

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