| Book Review | Environmental History, 9.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to Enviromental History online. About 172 words from this article are provided below; about 432 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to Environmental History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Environmental History, you can:: • get subscription information here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of Environmental History (8.1-present).
Instititutions can:: • get subscription information here to receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | Environmental History, 9.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

States of Nature: Science, Agriculture, and Environment in the Spanish Caribbean, 1760–1940. By Stuart McCook. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. xiv + 201 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth $50.00, paper $22.95.

In the export boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Spanish Caribbean was increasingly integrated into global economies. In States of Nature, Stuart McCook shows how botanists, naturalists, and plant breeders used the plant sciences to integrate "nature" into national economies, to nationalize nature. He traces botanists' and breeders' rhetorical and practical efforts to define the botanical landscapes of the new republics and their strenuous work to develop scientific agriculture. He argues that the plant sciences gave powerful groups new kinds of control over the natural world, which in turn contributed to their political and economic power in the human world. By following the peregrinations of people, plants, and pathogens, McCook skillfully portrays the complex ecological and political challenges inherent in nation-building and the institutionalization of the plant sciences in the Caribbean.

. . .

There are about 432 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.