Encyclopedia of American environmental history

Kathleen A. Brosnan

The Encyclopedia of American Environmental History is the first comprehensive reference to examine the issues, events, people, places, regions, activism, laws, and many other aspects of environmental history in the United States. From the Columbian Exchange in 1492, the development of slavery as a Southern institution, and the westward movement to the dust bowl, the Endangered Species Act, and the destruction caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, human interaction with the environment in America has been continuous, open-ended, and dynamic. How communities and individuals have used land, water, and natural resources has profoundly shaped U.S. history, influencing settlement patterns, social relations, cultural life, economic systems, wars, and political institutions. In the past generation, scholars have begun examining these human-environmental interactions in...