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Book Review
| The Atlas of US and Canadian Environmental History. Edited by Char Miller. New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2003. 256 pp. Illustrations, maps, charts, diagrams, index. Cloth $150.00.
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| Char Miller's Atlas is the most useful resource book that the field of environmental history has yet created. Combining exceptionally vivid maps with relevant visuals, each well-focused essay is a gold mine of information and connections to larger historical ideas. Although the Atlas is not a potential text, it is a volume that each environmental professional and educator should make certain is contained in his or her library. This is the environmental history book that every Environmental Studies program should have in its library or available to its students in the program's library. It will mark an excellent starting point for student research projects. |
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The coverage of topics in the Atlas is exceptional. Miller must be commended for remaining true to the title and offering a holistic coverage of both U.S. and Canadian environmental history. Although this effort becomes cumbersome at times (a chapter on conservation in the United States may be followed by a chapter on conservation in Canada), the comparative chapters offer in-depth discussion of trans-border issues that demonstrate the Atlas's commitment to the consideration of the North American continent. Many of the topics covered in the volume are familiar ones that have been covered in other volumes; these border topics, though, are original to the field. |
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In a fairly brief reference book with essays of only 1,000-2,000 words, the Atlas's primary challenge is to construct a coherent and easy-to-use organization. Miller has divided the Atlas into seven chapters: European Exploration and the Colonial Era; Expansion and Conflict; Landscape of Industrialization; the Conservation Era; From the Depression to Atomic Power; The Rise of the Environmental Movement; and Contemporary Environmentalism. In studying the table of contents, one finds that the organization makes good sense; however, once one is reading the essays, the organization can seem artificial and arbitrary. While reading the essays, I rarely recalled in which section the essay was contained. In such a reference book, it may have been more helpful to organize it in the fashion of an encyclopedia—alphabetically. At least that design would have allowed for easy retrieval of information. Or possibly the publisher could have included a topical table of contents. As the Atlas stands, one is forced to use the index extensively, which is adequate but cumbersome. I fear that this shortcoming may prove detrimental to how effectively the Atlas can be used by students and scholars. |
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Although the groupings of topics in some chapters (particularly "From the Depression to Atomic Power") is a bit obtuse (for instance, this chapter would have been better titled "Increased Role of Science and Ecology in Environmental Concern"), the essays are stellar. A fine cast of contributors—including Miller, Mark Harvey, Marty Melosi, Mart Stewart, Duane Smith, Joel Tarr, Tom Wellock, Phil Scarpino, Todd Shallat, Tim Silver, John Opie, Hal Rothman, Douglas Hurt, Hugh Gorman, and Peter Coates—have produced solid capsules that effectively ground topics in the existing literature while also forging innovative new connections. As I mentioned at the outset, the most original essays are the border studies of common issues that join Canada and the United States, including Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909; Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement; and Native American Land and Resource Rights, as well as common intellectual traditions such as romanticism or the urban park and landscape architecture tradition. Otherwise, the essays are well-written and illustrated condensations of familiar stories told elsewhere. Miller has accomplished a great deal to pull them into one reference source. |
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The additional resources contained in the Atlas also help to make it an indispensable tool. The maps and figures that accompany each article are based on original data or have been reconstructed from existing figures. Regardless, the figures work together to unify the entire volume. In addition, the volume contains a comprehensive bibliography for environmental history and many specialty areas within the field. The topics of this bibliography, however, do not cohere with the chapter topics, which makes the bibliography more of a stand-alone resource. The final resource in the Atlas is a timeline of environmental events and policies. |
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Combining each of these useful elements, the Atlas stands as a tremendous resource for even the general reader and researcher. For environmental historians and professionals, this volume should become the first stop for finding quick answers or details, whether one is preparing a lecture, a political document, or beginning a research paper. Char Miller has performed a superb service to the field. |
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Brian Black teaches history and environmental history at Penn State, Altoona, and also serves as editor of Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. He is the author of the prize-winning Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom (Johns Hopkins, 2000), which has just been released in paperback, and currently is writing Contesting Gettysburg, which is a landscape study of ideas of preservation at a sacred site. |
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