Here is a link to my choices for environmental history worth reading in October 2015 that I put together for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE).
Watch the accompanying video with Sean Kheraj below:
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Dr. Jessica M. DeWitt is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States. She is passionate about the use of digital technologies to bridge the gap between the public and researchers. In addition to her community and professional work, she offers various editing and social media consultancy services. View more posts
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Regarding Thoreau, I think you have a point. William Cronon begins Changes with a bit of Walden. Ted Steinberg begins Nature Incorporated with a bit from the Merrimack River. It seems to me that many of the first generation of US Environmental Historians came from a Cultural History background (Cronon’s major influence is probably Raymond Williams). Plenty of people still teach a whole lot of the culture side of EnvHist — personally, I have to work at it to get a few references to Cole and the influence of romantic art on, say, sanitation reformers. But that’s another story.
I do think I agree it’s a bit problematic, and maybe a bit too much of a capitulation to pop culture, to try to hold Thoreau up as some sort of oracle. The guy had absolutely no awareness of his own privilege. Doesn’t mean he didn’t write some insightful things, but the story is probably improved if people recognize the irony.
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