Marcus Hall

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Marcus Hall | True Environmental History | Environmental History, 10.1 | The History Cooperative

Anniversary Forum

True Environmental History

MARK CIOC'S RECENT eco-biography of the Rhine appeared auspiciously as I was settling into my new home at the headwaters of that drainage. His was a potent reminder that while most of us living in northern Switzerland fix our gaze on the mountains, much of what we throw out or flush down eventually makes its way into that great river, which with each new bend flows slower, darker, and dirtier on its approach to the North Sea. The rise and fall of the Rhine, I found out, is fortunately rising again, with public concerns and international treaties helping to clean up its polluted waters. In re-reading William Cronon's preface to the book, I agreed that Cioc may well have given us "the first true environmental history of a major European river." And then, I realize now, it was this simple assertion that stuck for me: While I agree that Cioc's work is a marvelous contribution, I have at odd moments ever since wondered just what true environmental histories might entail.

With these words, Cronon meant of course that the book represented good scholarship, and was asking questions that hadn't quite been asked before. Appearing as it did in 2002, Cronon's statement was also a declaration that environmental history had finally arrived, a confirmation that most scholars now knew about this field, that most universities offered courses in its subjects, and more importantly, that the reading public had even encountered studies similar to this one before. More subtly, this statement implied that there were true environmental historians, and Mark Cioc certainly fits the description as a respected, established—card-carrying—member of this particular guild of the historical profession. We now have tenure-track environmental historians, and perhaps that greatest legitimization of a field, our own encyclopedia covering the topic in three volumes.

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