Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New EnglandWith the arrival of European explorers and settlers during the seventeenth century, Native American ways of life and the environment itself underwent radical alterations as human relationships to the land and ways of thinking about nature all changed. This colonial ecological revolution held sway until the nineteenth century, when New England's industrial production brought on a capitalist revolution that again remade the ecology, economy, and conceptions of nature in the region. In Ecological Revolutions, Carolyn Merchant analyzes these two major transformations in the New England environment between 1600 and 1860. In a preface to the second edition, Merchant introduces new ideas about narrating environmental change based on gender and the dialectics of transformation, while the revised epilogue situates New England in the context of twenty-first-century globalization and climate change. Merchant argues that past ways of relating to the land could become an inspiration for renewing resources and achieving sustainability in the future. |
From inside the book
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Page 31
... soil in which to establish their roots . Red spruce ( Picea rubens ) dominates the high mountains accompanied by its constant compan- ion , the balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ) . Together they form dense , cool , shady groves with little ...
... soil in which to establish their roots . Red spruce ( Picea rubens ) dominates the high mountains accompanied by its constant compan- ion , the balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ) . Together they form dense , cool , shady groves with little ...
Page 32
Nature, Gender, and Science in New England Carolyn Merchant. Map 2.1 Major Soil Groups in New England VERMONT NEW ... soils found in coniferous regions . They yield pine timber , but base - needing agricultural crops do not do well in ...
Nature, Gender, and Science in New England Carolyn Merchant. Map 2.1 Major Soil Groups in New England VERMONT NEW ... soils found in coniferous regions . They yield pine timber , but base - needing agricultural crops do not do well in ...
Page 33
... soils that would yield good crops . On the sandy coastal soils of Cape Cod , Rhode Island , and Connecticut , pitch pine ... Soil Science Simplified [ Ames : Iowa State University Press , 1980 ] , pp . 98-99 , 92-95 . ) Source : U.S. ...
... soils that would yield good crops . On the sandy coastal soils of Cape Cod , Rhode Island , and Connecticut , pitch pine ... Soil Science Simplified [ Ames : Iowa State University Press , 1980 ] , pp . 98-99 , 92-95 . ) Source : U.S. ...
Page 36
... soils forever of an important source of phospho- rus . Especially significant for Indian and colonial farmers were the fertile beaver meadows that contrasted so sharply with the stony uplands.9 Over thousands of years , all over New ...
... soils forever of an important source of phospho- rus . Especially significant for Indian and colonial farmers were the fertile beaver meadows that contrasted so sharply with the stony uplands.9 Over thousands of years , all over New ...
Page 37
... soil , and sediment from nearby hill- sides , beaver ponds raised the temperature of the cold rushing wa- ters , producing plankton and aquatic insects favored by fish . Ranging from a few square feet to hundreds of acres in area , the ...
... soil , and sediment from nearby hill- sides , beaver ponds raised the temperature of the cold rushing wa- ters , producing plankton and aquatic insects favored by fish . Ranging from a few square feet to hundreds of acres in area , the ...
Contents
1 | |
27 | |
The Capitalist Ecological Revolution | 147 |
APPENDIXES | 281 |
Notes | 297 |
Bibliography | 337 |
Index | 377 |
Other editions - View all
Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England Carolyn Merchant Limited preview - 1989 |
Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England Carolyn Merchant Limited preview - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Abenaki acres Agricultural Agroecology Almanac American animals Astronomical Diary beans beaver biological reproduction Boston bushels capitalist ecological revolution cattle changes colonial ecological revolution colonists commodities Connecticut consciousness corn cosmos cows crops culture Diary earth ecofeminism ecological revolution Economy edited eighteenth century elites energy England Farmer English Environmental History ethic European farm female fertility fields fish forest Fur Trade garden Gluskabe grain Hampshire harvest human hunting Ibid improvement Island John John Winthrop labor land livestock Maine male manure Massachusetts meadows mechanistic Merchant mills mother native Americans nature nature's nonhuman Old Farmer's Almanac Oxford County pasture Penobscot percent Petersham plants plowing polycultures Population production and reproduction Puritan quotation Rhode Island River salt shaman sheep social soil southern New England subsistence symbols Thoreau tillage tion towns transformation trees tribes ture University Press vegetable Vermont wild wilderness William women wood woodland yields York