| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 235 words from this article are provided below; about 393 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, 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. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• 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 the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Ted Steinberg. Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History. New York: Oxford University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 347. $30.00.

Ted Steinberg's book is a delight. Though I have read a great deal of American environmental history, he shows how nature and natural events were influential in ways too often overlooked: for example, the role of climate in shaping the events and outcomes of the Civil War. Bringing nature in as an actor at least as powerful as human beings (and often more so) adds a dimension to the understanding of events that should now be integrated fully into any historical analysis. Steinberg shows the dynamic interactions between human activities, such as logging, and natural systems, and the often dramatic outcomes, such as long-term soil erosion, flooding, and eventual economic collapse. 1

Clearly such a book is an ambitious undertaking and should in the end become the project of a new encyclopedia. Steinberg has integrated much of the recent literature on the destruction of the bison, for example, and on the role of African slaves in bringing rice cultivation to the South. His discussion of the role of urban manure is excellent, giving rise to questions about how we manage human sewage today, especially with regard to long-term urban sustainability and ideas about closing systems, or "waste equals food" in the lexicon of industrial ecology. . . .

There are about 393 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.