In this inaugural interview in what is to be an on-going feature, we felt it fitting to talk with Hal Rothman, long-time editor of this journal and its predecessor Environmental History Review. Most readers will be well-acquainted with at least some of Hal's work. The length of his bibliography is a testament to his energy and enthusiasm and to his enormous contribution to the field of environmental history. It also is worth noting the many publications and interviews aimed at a lay audience: Rothman is an inspiring example of a true public scholar, an academic who has been determined to take the riches of our field to a wider audience.
Editor and Associate Editor: Thank you for agreeing to do this interview. It offers our readers a unique opportunity to retrace your intellectual biography with you.
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Editor: When he prepared a survey of the field for Pacific Historical Review back in 1985, Richard White was able to read all the important works in environmental history in a single summer. Which of these pioneering contributors were most important for you? Was there a particular book or article that influenced your decision to specialize in this field?
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Rothman: The first book I read was Alfred Crosby's The Columbian Exchange (Greenwood, 1972) and next was Donald Worster's The Dust Bowl (Oxford, 1979). This was back in 1981, when I started graduate school at the University of Texas, Austin.
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Editor: Who was your principal mentor at UT Austin? Did you meet any resistance or receive any words of warning when you decided to specialize in environmental history?
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Rothman: Alfred Crosby was my principal mentor. I took his seminar and was transformed. I saw the world in a new way. I did receive words of warning, but from another environmental historian, Robert Righter. He told me to remember that no one gets hired as an environmental historian. You get hired for something else and work it into your repertoire.
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Associate Editor: Did you go to UT Austin to work with Crosby or did you discover him when you arrived? Why did you go to graduate school at all? What was it about academic life that stimulated you? And was Righter correct? Did this prove true in your career?
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Rothman: I discovered Crosby when I arrived in Austin. I went there to be a film critic and American studies was the most amenable place for that aspiration. I took Crosby's class and was transformed. I went to grad school after knocking around in rock 'n' roll for a few years. I chose Austin because the Armadillo World Headquarters, a premier rock 'n' roll venue at the time, was there and I figured if grad school did not work out, I could go back into music. I am a faculty brat and was well-acquainted with academic life. As for Righter, he was correct. I was hired first as a public historian and later as a western historian. I never taught environmental history except as an overload until I was editor of Environmental History. It was a very different world then.
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Editor: Describe your own first steps in the field. What was the genesis of your first research topic? What challenges did you encounter when you began your research?
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