The Untilled Garden
Natural History and the Spirit of Conservation in America, 1740–1840

This study traces the origins of conservation thinking in America to the naturalists who explored the middle-western frontier between 1740 and 1840.

Richard W. Judd (Author)

9780521509985, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 June 2009

330 pages, 14 b/w illus.
23.6 x 16 x 2.3 cm, 0.57 kg

"[An] impressively researched study"
The New England Quarterly, Anya Zilberstein, Concordia University

This study traces the origins of conservation thinking in America to the naturalists who explored the middle-western frontier between 1740 and 1840. Their inquiries yielded a comprehensive natural history of America and inspired much of the conservation and ecological thinking we associate with later environmental and ecological philosophy. These explorers witnessed one of the great environmental transformations in American history, as the vast forests lying between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi gave way to a landscape of fields, meadows, and pastures. In debating these changes, naturalists translated classical ideas like the balance of nature and the spiritual unity of all species into an American idiom. This book highlights the contributions made by the generation of natural historians who pioneered the utilitarian, ecological, and aesthetic arguments for protecting or preserving nature in America.

Part I. Forging a Scientific Community: 1. 'A country unknown': colonial explorers and their natural history
2. Rambles in Eden
3. 'A despairing curiosity': creating America's scientific academy
Part II. The Natural History of America: 4. Power and purpose in the geological record: the scientific beginnings of American romanticism
5. Integrated landscapes: mountains, rivers, and forests in the balance of nature
6. 'A distant intercourse': animal character and conservation
Part III. Improvers, Romantics, and the Science of Conservation: 7. From forest to fruitful field: settlement and improvement in the Western wilderness
8. The naturalist's mirror: popular science and the roots of romanticism
10. Challenging the idea of improvement.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]