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Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America

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When we think of the conservation movement in America, our minds are drawn to people such as John James Audubon, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Aldo Leopold. Although these men wrote with passion about conservation, the political movement had deeper roots. In his original and thought provoking book, Steven Stoll proposes that conservation thought emerged as a political force in the 19th century exploitation of the land. Two forces emerged - the improvers of the land who believed that farming practices must be used to sustain the soil, - and the emigrants who kept moving to new untouched wilderness as their land gave out. Today, most of the arable land is cultivated and much of it in North America is maintained by technology. Larding the Lean Earth explores how technology has come to dominate the agricultural landscape. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of conservation, and anyone close to the land.

Farming occupied the majority of American pursuits in the 19th century, tied up most of the nation's capital, and occupied the thoughts of farmers and politicians alike. Before expansion into the West could succeed, conservation of land and resources would have to be taken into account: Larding The Lean Earth points out that the debate over natural resource management began in the 1820s and pitted farmers against plantation owners in a conflict which would affect westward expansion processes as a whole.