George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature was the first book to attack the American myth of the superabundance and the inexhaustibility of the earth. It was, as Lewis Mumford said, "the fountainhead of the conservation movement," and few books since have had such an influence on the way men view and use land. "It is worth reading after a hundred years," Mr. Lowenthal points out, "not only because it taught important lessons in its day, but also because it still teaches them so well...Historical insight and contemporary passion make Man and Nature an enduring classic."
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First published in 1864, this cautionary exploration of how civilizations decline when they degrade the natural world is the wellspring of the environmental movement.
--T.H. Watkins (Washington Post )
This classic of conservation, Man and Nature, is a remarkable work. Written more than 100 years ago, it remains as rich and suggestive now as it must have been astonishing then...The editor has written an excellent and meticulously balanced foreword...It should be added that the labor of Lowenthal in correcting, amplifying, and annotating the original creation of Marsh is beyond cavil. (Los Angeles Times )
--T.H. Watkins (Washington Post )
This classic of conservation, Man and Nature, is a remarkable work. Written more than 100 years ago, it remains as rich and suggestive now as it must have been astonishing then...The editor has written an excellent and meticulously balanced foreword...It should be added that the labor of Lowenthal in correcting, amplifying, and annotating the original creation of Marsh is beyond cavil. (Los Angeles Times )
About the Author
David Lowenthal is professor emeritus of geography at University College London. His books include George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of Conservation, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History, and The Past Is a Foreign Country.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Human Agency and Landscape Alteration,
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This review is from: Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics) (Paperback)
Although a dipolmat by profession, Marsh was the first environmentalist to describe the interrelationships between environment and culture. Today he is best remembered for his key work, "Man and Nature." In that classic work, he was the first to suggest that human agency constituted a major element in landscape change. The accepted view held by prominent geographers and geologists of his day was that the physical aspects of the earth were entirely the result of natural process and phenomena, including topography, geological materials, erosion, weathering, climate, etc. Before Marsh, no one had ever thought to study the earth in ways that it was changed by human actions. After his pioneering work, no serious environmentalist or geoscientist can afford to overlook the consequences of those actions on the land. A well-read copy of this book belongs in the personal library of every earth scientist, environmentalist, and conservationist. Marsh's book is a MUST READ for anyone concerned about what people are doing to the earth.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Modern Environmentalist, Writing in 1864!!!,
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This review is from: Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (John Harvard Library) (Paperback)
In 1864, George P. Marsh explained how civilizations create ecological disasters. His central thesis is that cutting down forests desrupts otherwise stable hydrological cycles, thereby causing erosion and degrading plant and animal habitats. The book is vaste, creative and detailed. An American from Vermont, Marsh also lived in Turkey and Italy, and pursued numerous careers, as diplomat, lawyer, businessman, and professor. His intense love of language and history merged with direct obersvations here and abroad to generate a remarkable breadth of knowlegde and a strong desire to communicate. In Man and Nature, Marsh is not only inspired, he is also happy to digress, particularly in the abundant footnotes.
4.0 out of 5 stars
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This was a gift for my younger sister in rememberence for our past summer's trip to visit the former home of George Marsh which we greatly enjoyed. I'm looking forward to her loaning it to me when she is finished and seeing his outlook on the books topic.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
THE Roman Empire, at the period of its greatest expansion, comprised the regions of the earth most distinguished by a happy combination of physical advantages. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
evaporable surface, sur les inondations, sur les dunes, coast dunes, destructive inundations, domestic quadrupeds, dei boschi, superficial strata, geographical importance, geological causes, superficial soil, sea dikes, transporting power Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New England, New York, Der Wald, Annales des Ponts, Des Climats, Middle Ages, Southern Europe, Red Sea, North America, History of Vermont, Old World, Bögens Indvandring, Asia Minor, Geognostische Studien, Revue des Deux Mondes, Southern France, Lake of Haarlem, Arthur Young, Physical Geography, Cape Cod, Rivières de la Lombardie, Northern Africa, Les Etats Unis, Charles Marsh Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
THE Roman Empire, at the period of its greatest expansion, comprised the regions of the earth most distinguished by a happy combination of physical advantages. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
evaporable surface, sur les inondations, sur les dunes, coast dunes, destructive inundations, domestic quadrupeds, dei boschi, superficial strata, geographical importance, geological causes, superficial soil, sea dikes, transporting power Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New England, New York, Der Wald, Annales des Ponts, Des Climats, Middle Ages, Southern Europe, Red Sea, North America, History of Vermont, Old World, Bögens Indvandring, Asia Minor, Geognostische Studien, Revue des Deux Mondes, Southern France, Lake of Haarlem, Arthur Young, Physical Geography, Cape Cod, Rivières de la Lombardie, Northern Africa, Les Etats Unis, Charles Marsh Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 48
books:
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100
books
cite this book:
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- Forest Influences: The Effect of Woody Vegetations on Climate, Water and Soil by J. Kittredge on 6 pages
- The Antiquity of Man by Charles Lyell on 5 pages
- The Climate Near the Ground by Rudolf Geiger on 4 pages
- The Ancient Egyptians by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson on page 317, and page 389
- Man And Nature by Arthur Edward Waite on page 134, and page 331
See all 48 books this book cites
- Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics) by George Perkins Marsh on 31 pages
- Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century by Daniel B. Botkin on 9 pages
- Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization by Christopher Manes on 5 pages
- Wildfire and Americans: How to Save Lives, Property, and Your Tax Dollars by Roger G. Kennedy on 5 pages
- Global Ecology in Human Perspective by Charles H. Southwick on 4 pages
See all 100 books citing this book
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