{"product_id":"down-to-earth-natures-role-in-american-history-9780195331820","title":"Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this ambitious and provocative text  environmental historian Ted Steinberg offers a sweeping history of the United States--a history that  for the first time  places the environment at the very center of the narrative. Now in a new edition  Down to Earth reenvisions the story of America \"from the ground up.\" It reveals how focusing on plants  animals  climate  and other ecological factors can radically change the way that we think about the past. Examining such familiar topics as colonization  the industrial revolution  slavery  the Civil War  and the emergence of consumer culture  Steinberg recounts how the natural world influenced the course of human history. From the colonists attempts to impose order on the land to modern efforts to sell the wilderness as a consumer good  he reminds readers that many critical episodes in U.S. history were  in fact  environmental events. The text highlights the ways in which Americans have attempted to reshape and control nature  from Thomas Jeffersons surveying plan  which divided the national landscape into a grid  to the transformation of animals  crops  and even water into commodities.  In the second edition  Steinberg has thoroughly revised and updated the section on the twentieth century. He also introduces a timely new theme--the rise of the corporation. By addressing the ways in which nature functions in the world of big business  as well as the efforts by environmentalists to combat corporate power  Steinberg provides a richer understanding of consumerism.  Down to Earth is ideal for courses in environmental history  environmental studies  urban studies  economic history  and American history. Passionately argued and thought provoking  this powerful text retells our nations history with nature in the foreground--a perspective that will challenge our view of everything from Jamestown to McDonalds.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45789787684917,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195331826","price":29.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195331820.jpg?v=1784698620","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/down-to-earth-natures-role-in-american-history-9780195331820","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}