Environmental history is now a well-established field. However, Ted Steinberg argues in this Forum Essay, it remains a field at the periphery of the discipline. Major narratives about the past rarely include information about the natural world, let alone confront the implications of such information for our understanding of the past. Steinberg asserts that this situation should change. He contends that taking environmental history seriously means that historians must recognize that nature is more than a mere backdrop to other events and forces. Indeed, he insists that historians should begin to recognize the environment as a critical factor affecting human agency. Steinberg develops this argument by drawing on examples from the history of the United States that illustrate how pivotal developments in the American past must be reconceptualized when the natural world is taken into account. And he maintains that similar revisions must be made in the histories of other times and places as well. Steinberg invites responses to his argument.	1
And so do we. This Forum is the fifth installment of a format in which we solicit comments from readers rather than commission responses to be published along with the essay. We will host a moderated electronic discussion between Steinberg and those who wish comment on his essay. The discussion will take place September 2–16, 2002, on the AHR web site at /. Participants can send questions or comments of up to 700 words. Guidelines will be posted on the discussion sign-in page. Our primary goals for the discussion are to make the exchanges as open and useful as possible and to ensure that they comply with the established standards of the AHR. After the discussion has concluded, the exchanges will become a permanent part of the electronic version of this Forum Essay. Questions about the Forum can be sent to the American Historical Review, 914 E. Atwater Ave., Bloomington, IN 47401 or to our e-mail address: ahr@indiana.edu.	2

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