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Environmental history first emerged as a distinct area of scholarship in the early 1970s and has been growing steadily ever since. By studying the many ways diverse peoples have changed, shaped, and conserved the natural world over time, environmental historians provide insight into humanity's unique relationship with nature and, more importantly, are better able to understand the origins of our current environmental crisis. Beginning with Native Americans and concluding with the global ecological crisis, this volume explores contentious issues such as the preservation of the wilderness, the expulsion of native peoples from national parks, and population growth, and considers the formative forces of gender, race, and class. Entries address the impact of rice cultivation and slavery, African American perceptions of nature, the Russian sea otter trade, Columbia River salmon fisheries, the growth of the suburbs, the environmental justice movement, and globalization.

This reference is an essential companion for students interested in the ongoing transformation of the American landscape and the conflicts over its resources and conservation. The volume also makes rich use of the tools and resources (climatic and geological data, court records, archeological digs, the writings of naturalists) that environmental historians rely on to conduct their research. Also crucial is the volume's compendium of significant people, concepts, events, agencies, and legislation, and its extensive bibliography listing critical films, books, and Web sites.