Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western CultureThis revised edition of Carolyn Merchant’s classic Reinventing Eden has been updated with a new foreword and afterword. Visionary quests to return to the Garden of Eden have shaped Western Culture. This book traces the idea of rebuilding the primeval garden from its origins to its latest incarnations and offers a bold new way to think about the earth. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 44
Page ii
... desert of the Enlightenment into the lush narrative complexity of an ecological Promised Land, where chaos theory ensures that humans will be partners with Nature.”—David Nye, Technology and Culture “Carolyn Merchant has made another ...
... desert of the Enlightenment into the lush narrative complexity of an ecological Promised Land, where chaos theory ensures that humans will be partners with Nature.”—David Nye, Technology and Culture “Carolyn Merchant has made another ...
Page 6
... deserts are turned into gardens for American settlers. Throughout the ensuing chapters, I also examine the second story, or what went wrong—the story of Earth in decline. From Plato to Henry David Thoreau, writers have noted the ...
... deserts are turned into gardens for American settlers. Throughout the ensuing chapters, I also examine the second story, or what went wrong—the story of Earth in decline. From Plato to Henry David Thoreau, writers have noted the ...
Page 12
... desert as the first couple is cast from the light of an ordered paradise into a dark, disorderly wasteland to labor in the earth. Instead of giving fruit readily, the earth now extracts human labor. The blame for the Fall is placed on ...
... desert as the first couple is cast from the light of an ordered paradise into a dark, disorderly wasteland to labor in the earth. Instead of giving fruit readily, the earth now extracts human labor. The blame for the Fall is placed on ...
Page 13
... desert oasis irrigated by springs. “The term 'garden' (gan),” he notes, “is itself the common designation in biblical Hebrew for irrigation-supported agriculture.” Irrigation agriculture was typified by the river valley civilizations of ...
... desert oasis irrigated by springs. “The term 'garden' (gan),” he notes, “is itself the common designation in biblical Hebrew for irrigation-supported agriculture.” Irrigation agriculture was typified by the river valley civilizations of ...
Page 17
... desert and infertile ground, a negative nature from which humanity must recover to regain the garden.10 With the Fall from Eden, humanity abandons an original, “untouched” nature and enters into history. Nature is now a fallen world and ...
... desert and infertile ground, a negative nature from which humanity must recover to regain the garden.10 With the Fall from Eden, humanity abandons an original, “untouched” nature and enters into history. Nature is now a fallen world and ...
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
Part II New World Edens | 79 |
Part III New Stories | 159 |
Epilogue | 209 |
Afterword | 211 |
Notes | 217 |
Bibliography | 251 |
Index | 271 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adam and Eve agriculture Aldo Leopold American animals argues Baird Callicott biblical California Carolyn Merchant century chaos chaos theory Christian civilization climate change complex conservation created creation decline depicted desert domination dominion earth ecological Edenic emerging Enlightenment environment environmental environmentalists European Eve’s Fall fallen female feminist fertile fields filled final find fire first fish flood flowers flowing forest fruit Gaia Gaia hypothesis garden Garden of Eden gender Genesis global God’s goddess human humanity’s Ibid idea Indians Iohn James Lovelock labor land landscape living Locke’s mainstream Recovery Narrative male mall mechanistic science modern mother mountains Muir nature’s nonhuman nature ofthe original paradise park partner partnership ethic pastoral philosophers plants profit progress quotation reflect Reinventing restore rivers social society soil story symbolized theory Thoreau tion Torah transformed trees University Press Val Plumwood virgin Western culture wild wilderness William Cronon women York