Case studies examining the archaeological record of an overlooked mineralSalt, once a highly prized trade commodity essential for human survival, is often overlooked in research because it is invisible in the archaeological record. Salt in Eastern North America and the Caribbean: History and Archaeology brings salt back into archaeology, showing that it was valued as a dietary additive, had curative powers, and was a substance of political power a...

The cold, stygian dark of the extreme sea depths is home to some of our planet’s strangest creatures. Even their names evoke a science fiction adventure: dragonfishes, greeneyes, viperfishes, mirrorbellies, lanternfishes. Marine biologist Henry “Hank” Compton (1928–2005) of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Rockport Marine Lab was present on some of the earliest Gulf of Mexico cruises on which these fishes were collected for the first time in Texas waters.Upon returning, Co...

In warm, shallow waters around the world, coral reefs teem with tens of thousands of marine species. Reefs rival rain forests in biodiversity, and about a third of the world’s marine fish species live part of their lives on coral reefs.In the 1960s, marine biologist Henry “Hank” Compton (1928–2005) of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Rockport Marine Lab participated in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean research cruises on which some of these fishes were collected. A talente...

North America's Great Lakes country has experienced centuries of upheaval. Its landscapes are utterly changed from what they were five hundred years ago. The region's superabundant fish and wildlife and its magnificent forests and prairies astonished European newcomers who called it an earthly paradise but then ushered in an era of disease, warfare, resource depletion, and land development that transformed it forever.The Once and Future Great Lakes Country is a history of ...

**Winner of the 2023 Rachel Carson Environment Book AwardWinner of the 2023 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History LiteratureShortlisted for the 2023 Phi Beta Kappa Society Ralph Waldo Emerson AwardA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2022A deep-time history of animals and humans in North America, by the best-selling and award-winning author of Coyote America.**In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the rem...

What did New York look like four centuries ago? An extraordinary reconstruction of a wild island from the forests of Times Square to the wetlands downtown.Named a Best Book of the Year by Library Journal , New York Magazine , and San Francisco ChronicleOn September 12, 1609, Henry Hudson first set foot on the land that would become Manhattan. Today, it's difficult to imagine what he saw, but for more than a decade, landscape ecolo...

A naturist and historian for the National Parks Service offers a lively history of the giant sequoias of California and the love of nature they inspired.Former park ranger William C. Tweed takes readers on a tour of some of the world's largest and oldest trees in a narrative that travels deep into the Sierra Nevada mountains, across the American West, and all the way to New Zealand. Along the way, he explores the American public's evolving relationship with sequoia...

**Winner of the 2015 PROSE Award for US HistoryA “fascinating, encyclopedic history…of greater New York City through an ecological lens” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)—the sweeping story of one of the most man-made spots on earth.**Gotham Unbound recounts the four-century history of how hundreds of square miles of open marshlands became home to six percent of the nation’s population. Ted Steinberg brings a vanished New York back to vivid, rich life. Y...

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 the precolonial land-use practice of Native Americans and concluding with our twenty-first century concerns over our global ecological crisis, American Environmental History

This outstanding text provides students with the essential foundation in the historical geography of the United States. Distinguished scholar Richard L. Nostrand skillfully synthesizes decades of historical geography research in an engaging and thought-provoking overview. His regional geography framework emphasizes the three themes central to cultural geography—cultural ecology, cultural diffusion, and cultural landscape—to explain the formation and change of culture regions in the United ...

This fascinating book tells the story of how one museum changed ideas about dinosaurs, dynasties, and even the story of life on earth. The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, now celebrating its 150th anniversary, has remade the way we see the world. Delving into the museum’s storied and colorful past, award-winning author Richard Conniff introduces a cast of bold explorers, roughneck bone hunters, and visionary scientists. Some became famous for wresting Brontosaurus, Tri...

An essay collection exploring the history of 5,000-year relationship between human culture and nature on the Georgia coast.One of the unique features of the Georgia coast today is its thorough conservation. At first glance, it seems to be a place where nature reigns. But another distinctive feature of the coast is its deep and diverse human history. Indeed, few places that seem so natural hide so much human history. In Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture, edito...