This Land, This South

Here is the story of the long interaction between humans, land, and climate in the American South. It is a tale of exploitation and erosion, of destruction, disease, and defeat, but also of the persistent search for knowledge and wisdom. It is a story whose villains were also its victims and sometimes its heroes. Ancient forces created the southern landscape, but, as Albert E. Cowdrey shows, humankind from the time of earliest habitation has been at work reshaping it. The southern Indians, far from being the natural ecologists of myth, radically transformed their environment by hunting and burning. Such patterns were greatly accelerated by the arrival of Europeans, who viewed the land as a commodity to be exploited for immediate economic benefit. Their greed and ignorance took a heavy toll on the land and all those it supported. Cowdrey documents not only the long decline but the painfully slow struggle to repair the damage of human folly. The eighteenth century saw widespread though ineffectual efforts to protect game and conserve the soil. In the nineteenth century the first hesitant steps were taken toward scientific flood control, forestry, wildlife protection, and improved medicine. In this century, the New Deal, the explosion in scientific knowledge, and the national environmental movement have spurred more rapid improvements. But the efforts to harness the South's great rivers, to save its wild species, and to avert serious environmental pollution have often had equivocal results

Economic history · Environmental history · Geography · Political science · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · History

• At the Intersection of Histories

  Jeffrey K Stine, Joel A Tarr•Technology and Culture•1998

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• A Short History of a Flat Place

  Jonathan D Phillips•Annals of the Association of…•1997

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• A Watery Grave?

  Open Access•Christopher M Rein•Nature at War•2020

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• Other Nature

  Jeffrey Myers, Jeffrey A Myers•African American Review•2003

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• Racial and gender meanings of why people participate in recreational fishing

  John F Toth, Ralph B Brown•Leisure Sciences•1997

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• Nutrition and Economic Development in Post-Reconstruction South Carolina

  Open Access•Peter A Coclanis, John Komlos•Social Science History•1995

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• American Environmental History

  Richard White•Pacific Historical Review•1985

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• I Still Have the Old Tradition”

  Open Access•Brian Grabbatin, Patrick T Hurley et al.•Geoforum•2011

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• When Land Was Cheap, and Labor Dear

  Open Access•Lynn A Nelson•History Compass•2008

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• A 'Curious and Grim Testimony to a Persistent Human Blindness

  Paul D Barclay•Ethics Place & Environment•2002

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• Fuelwood collection as daily practice

  Anna F Graham•Southeastern Archaeology•2020

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