The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States

601 Pages·2012·16.132 MB·English

by  Mark Fiege

Weyerhaeuser environmental Books
William Cronon, Editor
Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books explore human relationships with natu-
ral environments in all their variety and complexity. They seek to cast new light
on the ways that natural systems affect human communities, the ways that peo-
ple affect the environments of which they are a part, and the ways that different
cultural conceptions of nature profoundly shape our sense of the world around
us. A complete list of the books in the series appears at the end of this book.

The
Republic
of
NatuRe
an environmental history o f t he united states
Mark Fiege
university of Washington Press

Seattle and London
The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States
is published with the assistance of a grant from the Weyerhaeuser
Environmental Books Endowment, established by the Weyerhaeuser
Company Foundation, members of the Weyerhaeuser family,
and Janet and Jack Creighton.
© 2012 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Design by Thomas Eykemans
Composed in Sorts Mill Goudy; display type set in League Gothic;
courtesy The League of Moveable Type
16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
university of Washington Press
Po Box 50096, Seattle, Wa 98145, usa
www.washington.edu/uwpress
liBrary of Congress Cataloging-in-PuBliCation data
Fiege, Mark.
The republic of nature : an environmental history of the United States / Mark Fiege.
       p. cm. — (Weyerhaeuser environmental books)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-0-295-99167-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Human ecology—United States—History.
2. Nature—Effect of human beings on—United States—History.
3. United States—Environmental conditions.
i. Title.
gf503f54 2012   304.20973—dc23   2011035457
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ansi Z39.48–1984.∞
frontisPieCe Dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, May 30, 1922.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, lC-f81-19718
For Alexandra
coNteNts
foreWord
Environmental History Comes of Age by William Cronon ix
land of linColn 3
1 satan in the land
Nature, the Supernatural, and Disorder in Colonial New England 23
2 By the laWs of nature and of nature’s god
Declaring American Independence 57
3 king Cotton
The Cotton Plant and Southern Slavery 100
4 nature’s noBleman
Abraham Lincoln and the Improvement of America 156
5 the nature of gettysBurg
Environmental History and the Civil War 199
6 iron horses
Nature and the Building of the First U.S. Transcontinental Railroad 228
7 atomiC suBlime
Toward a Natural History of the Bomb 281
8 the road to BroWn v. Board
An Environmental History of the Color Line 318
9 it’s a gas
The United States and the Oil Shock of 1973–1974 358
Paths that BeCkon 403
Acknowledgments 430
Notes 434
References 509
Illustration Credits 557
Index 560
illustRatioNs
gallery no. 1
Mountains and Monuments 15
gallery no. 2
Animal Familiars 139
Political Ecology 142
Hard Labor 148
Butcher’s Bill 151
gallery no. 3
Iron Horses 265
Nature Study 271
Natural Hazards 275
Lipids and Liberty 278
FoRewoRd
Environmental History Comes of Age
William Cronon
Once in a great while, perhaps every decade or two for a given field, a book
comes along that changes the way one thinks about an entire subject. Some-
times this happens when a writer of unusual creativity revisits a familiar topic
and somehow manages to find in it insights so fresh that it’s hard to believe
no one noticed them before. Sometimes it happens when a scholar of unusual
range wanders across a vast historiography and ties it together in an act of syn-
thesis that discovers unexpected connections among disparate elements that
few imagined might be brought together in such a surprising way. And some-
times it happens when an intellectual of unusual generosity takes the questions
and findings of a specialized subfield and so compellingly demonstrates their
relevance to other fields and disciplines that the subfield suddenly feels far
more mainstream than one thought.
It is rare enough for a single book to succeed at one of these tasks; it is rarer
still for one book to accomplish them all. And yet that is precisely what Mark
Fiege’s The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States does.
It is surely among the most important works of environmental history pub-
lished since the field was founded four or more decades ago. No book before
it has so compellingly demonstrated the value of applying environmental per-
spectives to historical events that at first glance may seem to have little to do
with “nature” or “the environment.” No one who cares about the American
past can afford to ignore what Fiege has to say.
Having declared my enthusiasm so unabashedly, I should hasten to make

sure that I don’t misrepresent the volume you hold in your hands. Despite its
ix