The Nature of New York An Environmental History of the Empire State

David Stradling's survey of New York's nature over four hundred years-from the Lenape and Leatherstocking to Levittown and Love Canal-is a marvel of environmental writing. In at times heartbreaking detail, he reminds us that New York, like anywhere, is a living place-pristine, violated, cleansed, preserved-where humans are just one organism, a part of and apart from the destiny of the place.-Gerard Koeppel, author of Water for Gotham: A History and Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire "Don't be fooled by the term 'environmental history' in its subtitle; The Nature of New York is a big, broad, ambitious, important, and best of all, highly readable book. Given that the Empire State has so often led the nation in environmental progress (and at times in degradation as well), this book will interest anyone who cares about American attitudes toward our natural inheritance. For New Yorkers in particular, David Stradling's book should be required reading."-Paul Schneider, author of The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness "What most impresses me about The Nature of New York is David Stradling's focus on events, people, and places that are obviously connected to the state's natural history and his ability to connect that environmental history to the overall history of the region. Simply put, Stradling persuasively illustrates how one cannot fully understand the history of the Empire State without also taking into account the state's intimate relationship to the natural environment."-Neil M. Maher, author of Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement