$3.99 delivery Tuesday, May 30. Details

Or fastest delivery May 23 - 25. Details

Only 1 left in stock - order soon

[{"displayPrice":"$43.11","priceAmount":43.11,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"43","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"11","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"3Ib8EmwptDFSDMURn7yhRXa2Z78sGwoIptyGC6VRTmkMPVbsPtIjhV9Nn8A2%2BkrU%2Bs4Ql99sibPAQPE3BTEafFgzi5WQj4r7aHHyt67BWLUpMwulgisP%2F4F%2Frt7MgElxD594b9Y6CfIBsuid2gITyhqtT4LbDSkjF1g8qFa3cLfX6Be%2FDGRQdSK00mnu5Ui8","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$6.04","priceAmount":6.04,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"6","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"04","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"3Ib8EmwptDFSDMURn7yhRXa2Z78sGwoIbmLf%2FT%2BwVvNnta0KU2nbMbYcELiYUNiEdF4amPvoq%2FqSpr1azjC6Y5nrsBO6Y9Mt3XwWAVqWp6vYboGr9VP4vfAYNqdk%2Fzj8sEaxKwn%2FwC76TvmHAKrnx4MyFPLekuOX8jerCZ2%2B0RItOXmqhvTAaeEnp3Mgtl0s","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$43.11 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Quikric Express

Sold by

Quikric Express

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Quikric Express

Sold by

Quikric Express

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

FREE delivery May 30 - June 5. Details

Or fastest delivery May 23 - 25. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by ThriftBooks-Phoenix

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$46.95
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: AYDEKE

Added

Not added

$47.50
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: 2InfinitI

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Matthew W. Klingle

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle (The Lamar Series in Western History) Hardcover – November 27, 2007

by Matthew Klingle (Author)

4.3 14 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$43.11

$2.07

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$29.00

$20.00

$2.60

Purchase options and add-ons

At the foot of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains on the forested shores of Puget Sound, Seattle is set in a location of spectacular natural beauty. Boosters of the city have long capitalized on this splendor, recently likening it to the fairytale capital of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City. But just as Dorothy, Toto, and their traveling companions discover a darker reality upon entering the green gates of the imaginary Emerald City, those who look more closely at Seattle’s landscape will find that it reveals a history marked by environmental degradation and urban inequality.

This book explores the role of nature in the development of the city of Seattle from the earliest days of its settlement to the present. Combining environmental history, urban history, and human geography, Matthew Klingle shows how attempts to reshape nature in and around Seattle have often ended not only in ecological disaster but also social inequality. The price of Seattle’s centuries of growth and progress has been paid by its wildlife, including the famous Pacific salmon, and its poorest residents. Klingle proposes a bold new way of understanding the interdependence between nature and culture, and he argues for what he calls an “ethic of place.” Using Seattle as a compelling case study, he offers important insights for every city seeking to live in harmony with its natural landscape.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

November 27, 2007
Dimensions

6.13 x 1.06 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0300116411
ISBN-13

978-0300116410
See all details

Highest rated | Lowest Pricein this set of products
BJ Cummings
47
Paperback
$19.95
Most purchasedin this set of products
David B. Williams
114
Paperback
$19.95
This item:
Matthew Klingle
14
Hardcover
$46.95
Coll Thrush
37
Paperback
$24.95
David B. Williams
66
Paperback
$19.95

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Emerald City has been eagerly awaited by historians of cities, the environment, and the North American West. Klingle addresses many of the traditional topics of urban history and reframes them as environmental questions."—Carl Abbott, Portland State University

(Carl Abbott)

“This book shifts the debate, mapping out new terrain that other historians will spend years exploring. Emerald City is one of the most thoughtful books published in recent years.”—Jeremi Suri, University of Wisconsin, Madison
(Jeremi Suri)

“Seattle is not only among the loveliest of cities, it's also, as Matthew Klingle demonstrates here, one of the most interesting. Not everything in this history will please the boosters, but those who love the great city of the Northwest will find here a new sense of both the city's roots and its possibilities.”—Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy
(Bill McKibben)

“Matthew Klingle's Emerald City tells the story of how the entangled histories of nature and politics in Seattle shaped that city. It is a cautionary tale of private greed and public miscalculation, of good intentions gone awry and some things that came out right. Emerald City is the kind of history that every city needs, and all can learn from it. The story is particular to Seattle, but similar dramas can be read in the landscape of every American city. Required reading for everyone concerned with the future of Seattle, I recommend it for those engaged with city building anywhere.”—Anne Whiston Spirn, author of The Granite Garden
(Anne Whiston Spirn)

"People and salmon can both prosper if we humans pay attention to the impact of our aspirations on the fish. Matt Klingle’s exhaustive history of Seattle and its salmon reminds us, painfully at times, of the consequences to nature of our mindless pursuit of human well being."—William D. Ruckelshaus, Chairman, The Puget Sound Partnership and former Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency
(William D. Ruckelshaus)

“Matthew Klingle is among the new generation of urban environmental historians who truly understand the need to turn aside the superficial and unnecessary gulf between culture and nature to better understand urban development. The perspective of Seattle as a latter day ‘Emerald City’ from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is masterful imagery and a pertinent departure point for reconsidering how cities evolve over time.” —Martin V. Melosi, author of The Sanitary City

(Martin V. Melosi)

“A triumph. . . . Klingle knows Seattle backward and forward; he also knows American cities in general, so this is not a strictly local story. . . . A marvelous book and one, moreover, that should be essential reading for concerned Seattleites and environmental historians alike.”—Richard Walker, Annals of the Association of American Geographers
(Richard Walker Annals of the Association of American Geographers 2008-09-01)

"Emerald City successfully weaves urban history and environmental history into a narrative that shows how much we are a part of nature and nature is a part of us."—John Putnam, Project Muse (John Putnam Project Muse)

About the Author

Matthew Klingle is associate professor of history and environmental studies, Bowdoin College.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; F First Edition (November 27, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300116411
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300116410
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 1.06 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,144,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,373 in Human Geography (Books)
- #11,117 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #65,847 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
4.3 14 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Matthew W. Klingle

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I'm associate professor of history and environmental studies at Bowdoin College where I teach courses on the North American West, environmental history, urban history, and other topics in U.S. and transnational history. I live with my family in Brunswick, ME. For more information, visit my web page at http://www.bowdoin.edu/faculty/m/mklingle/

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

14 global ratings

5 star		69%
4 star		14%
3 star		5%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		13%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Jayhawk

Great history lesson

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 20, 2010

Verified Purchase

I'd read several histories of Seattle before this, so I knew the basic outline of how the city was settled and how the land was reshaped by engineers -- filling in mud flats, knocking down hills, carving a ship channel connect Puget Sound to Lake Washington. But this book goes much further, exploring each of those developments in detail, plus many others I didn't know about, showing how developers, engineers, railroads, and government officials worked to carve a city out of the diverse and challenging environment. The author explores how engineers dominated city government for many years, and how their decisions about water supplies, auto traffic vs. parks, sewer lines, etc., continue to shape the city and its neighborhoods today.

Particularly revealing here is how some of the "victories" of Seattle's growing environmental consciousness have come at a pretty high price. For example, the cleanup of Lake Washington in the 60's was heralded as a great victory for science and the environmental movement -- but it came at the price of re-routing even more sewage into the Duwamish River (now one the nation's largest Superfund sites) and into Puget Sound (thereby creating further problems for the Sound's ecosystem).

Great read -- ties together nature, geography, ongoing court cases involving Indian fishing rights, urban geography and sociology.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joshua Kahan

Decent, But Oversights Don't Justify 5-star Ratings

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2013

"Emerald City" helps put the region's environmental history into perspective. I learned a lot. Some concepts, such as how the treatment of Native Americans changed over time, were excellent. Discussing how outdoor recreational organizations eventually became catalysts for environmental change was insightful. But the book misses the mark on several fronts.

Key environmental subjects were inexplicably not given a lot of attention. The most glaring example was the wholesale contamination of the Duwamish River making it one of the most degraded waterways in the country. Much of this river corridor is now a Superfund site.

Kringle extensively touts early Seattle's foresight in designing a world class park system. But many of the city's current parks were brought into the system by default such as ex-military bases (Discovery, Magnuson), steep slope/beach areas (Carkeek, Golden Gardens), abandoned industrial sites (Gasworks, Port parks), or floodplains (Arboretum, Ravenna). His praise of early park "Olmstead" planning is true for many other American cities, but not Seattle.

The author should have hired a local ecologist to review the text for accuracy. The book has quite a few incorrect statements such as:
- Douglas-fir cones need fire to promote germination, and Douglas-fir trees produce so much duff that spontaneous combustion can occur. Neither of these statements are true.
- Salmon historically spawned in the Duwamish River estuary. Very unlikely since estuaries are highly dynamic sites in relation to sedimentation and hydrology, and typically lack spawning gravel. Most river spawning in the watershed starts about 25 miles upriver of the estuary.
- Human-set fires were common to improve conditions for game. There is limited data on the intentional burning by indigenous peoples within proximity of Seattle.
- Several small streams in Seattle were identified on maps as "Major Salmon Runs." No stream in Seattle meets (or historically met) this definition.

While this book provides some good information, it's faults do not justify a five star rating.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

KatBoxJanitor, Deborah

Read it and you will learn what an evironmental history can be...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 22, 2011

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle is a surprisingly engaging book.
This was an assignment for a graduate course and as a transplant to Seattle I figured I knew what I would read.

I totally underestimated the range of drama, destruction and oppression that totally blew my stereotype of Seattle.

Definitely a worthwhile read and I hope some other 'environmental history' titles will be as involving.
Its a keeper!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Steve Wedel

Excellent Examination of the Interplay of History & The Environment

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 13, 2008

If you are interested in both history and the environment, and a new, rigorous and thoughtful way of examining the interplay between the two, then The Emerald City will undoubtedly interest you. Mr. Klingle tackles the history of Seattle - literally from the ground (or is that the Sound?) up - with an eye on showing how the building of a major metropolitan city can lead to both inevitable and surprising consequences, even when said city-building is done with a cognizance of the need to take into account surrounding pristine environs, and, indeed, even when trying to develop the city with the best interests of the environment in mind. Which, I think, is the point; one cannot separate development and the environment, and as such they must be approached with a new paradigm.

Klingle comes at this tale from multiple angles - the greed and power of the early railway companies, the socio-economic impact not only on the native Sound tribes but on the early western settlers as well, the planning of Seattle's verdant parks by Olmstead, an extremely eye-opening take of the interplay between ecology and urban poverty - and brings them together in a way that, in the end, to my mind echoed perfectly the multiple waterways that all feed into, and sustain, Seattle.

That Mr. Klingle is a top-notch writer, with the ability to turn a beautiful phrase or metaphor with seeming ease, is just icing on the cake. I am neither an academic nor a scholar, but The Emerald City is a book of surpassing intelligence and thoughtfulness, and, like the "emerald" associated with Seattle, a gem worth looking into. Highly recommended.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Buy new: $43.11$43.11 $3.99 delivery: Tuesday, May 30 Ships from: Quikric Express Sold by: Quikric Express

Buy used: $6.04

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle (The Lamar Series in Western History) Hardcover – November 27, 2007

Purchase options and add-ons

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Matthew W. Klingle

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buy new:

$43.11

$3.99 delivery: Tuesday, May 30

Ships from: Quikric Express

Sold by: Quikric Express

Buy used:

$6.04