| THIS ISSUE perhaps more than any other since I became editor exemplifies
the richness of our field.
In the lead article, Christine Meisner Rosen joins environmental
history and legal history to provide fresh insight into the ways
Americans tried to make sense of new forms of pollution in the
mid-nineteenth century. Anthropologist Melissa Johnson uses a
case study of colonial British Honduras to raise important questions
about the connection between ideas about race and ideas about
how people relate to nature. Ellen Stroud reflects on what she
learned when she asked her students to ponder the environmental
history of dead bodies. In the second reflections essay, Rolf
Diamant shares his experience as the first superintendent of a
new national park devoted to interpreting the history and evolution
of conservation stewardship in America. Bernard Mergen's review
essay opens up a vast subject the relationship of children to
nature that so far has received little attention from historians.
In different ways, the cover image and the Gallery essay draw
attention to the widespread use of landscape imagery in promoting
development. The Norman Rockwell painting of Glen Canyon Dam on
the cover is part of a fascinating collection of art works commissioned
by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the late 1960s and early
1970s. To see other works in the bureau s collection, go to http://www.usbr.gov/museumproperty/art/homepage.htm.
Connie Chiang's essay offers a wonderful reading of an ad for
a toll-road owned by the Pebble Beach Company: Mother Nature's
Drive-Thru.
THE LAST YEAR was an eventful one for the journal. We changed
our look. We added the Gallery section,, and we began to publish
reflections essays.. We also went online. You now can find the
journal on the History Cooperative site: http://www.historycooperative.org/ehindex.html.
Though the design firm Mcreative provided us with the basics
of our new look, we still had to work out many details throughout
the year, and managing editor Eve Munson was a creative and hard-working
partner in that process. I greatly appreciate her efforts. I also
am glad to have the help of Kathy Morse as graphics editor. Kathy
commissioned the Gallery essay in this issue.. She also secured
the cover image and worked to obtain illustrations for several
of the articles. Now that she is hard at work, I am sure that
every issue will have superb graphics!
Our decision to join the History Cooperative came after a detailed
consideration of online alternatives. In that consideration, Steve
Anderson and I had the help of a committee consisting of Hal Rothman,
Jeffrey Stine, Nancy Langston, and Joe Schultz, the managing editor
of Technology and Culture.
This issue marks the end of Dave Hsiung's tenure as acting book
review editor, and I thank him for doing a fabulous job. I also
welcome back Ed Russell. In Dave s last two issues, we expanded
the book review section, and I hope that we will be able to publish
even more reviews in the future.
As I wrote last year, I could not manage without the contributions
of the fine staff at the Forest History Society: Carol Marochak,
Cheryl Oakes, Michele Justice, Kathy Cox, and Steve Anderson.
The journal also depends on the expertise and generosity of many
scholars. I am especially grateful once again to the members of
the editorial board. For the first time, we met as a group at
the ASEH conference, and that meeting was a tremendous source
of ideas and inspiration. In addition, I want to acknowledge the
many people who took time this year to evaluate manuscripts. Thanks
to Rusty Bittermann, Margaret Bogue, Nigel Bolland, Karl Brooks,
Sean Cadigan, Christopher Chapple, Jacqueline Corn, Patricia Cleary,
John Cumbler, Janet Davis, Lary Dilsaver, Brian Donahue, Kurkpatrick
Dorsey, Tom Dunlap, Mark Fiege, Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, David Grettler,
Angela Gugliotta, Matthew Guterl, Marcus Hall, Louise Halper,
Mark Harvey, Thomas Huffman, Karl Jacoby, Matt Klingle, Nancy
Langston, Ralph Lutts, Stuart McCook, Gregg Mitman, Lynn Nelson,
Jared Orsi, Dan Philippon, Cynthia Radding, Mahesh Rangarajan,
Carol Reardon, Paul Sabin, Doug Sackman, Myrna Santiago, Robin
Schulze, Candace Slater, Andrew Sluyter, Jeffrey Stine, Steven
Stoll, Joseph Taylor, Nancy Tomes, Louis Warren, and Gordon Whitney.
When I was appointed as editor, I was not asked to serve a particular
term. Four years now seems to me a fitting tenure. I therefore
have decided to step down at the end of 2005. An announcement
of the search for my successor is in this issue. Though the editorship
has given me a few gray hairs, the job has been incredibly rewarding.
I have eight issues left, and I am resolved to make those issues
as exciting as I can. As always, I welcome comments from readers
about any aspect of the journal. My email address is axr26@psu.edu.
ADAM ROME
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