Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England

William Cronon

Apr 2011 · Sold by Hill and Wang

About this ebook

The book that launched environmental history, William Cronon's Changes in the Land, now revised and updated.

Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize

In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-disciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another. With its chilling closing line, "The people of plenty were a people of waste," Cronon's enduring and thought-provoking book is ethno-ecological history at its best.

Ratings and reviews

I had to read this for my Native American History class and I thought it was extremely interesting because of its ability to bring in both Native American perspective and colonist perspectives. However, I believe it was more bias on the Europeans saying that their colonization lead to more destruction. Not that this was not true , but this book was supposed to look at both arguments and focused on one more than the other. Overall, I think this book is very good at giving examples of both Native Americans and Europeans in explicit detail. Furthermore, I would recommend this book.

Just finished this book for school. I enjoyed the facts and the extensive details. Also the many examples of relationships between the natives and settlers were interesting. Lost a star on how repetitious he was between chapters. It felt like he was paraphrasing whole paragraphs from previous chapters at some points. Otherwise cool read!

Loved

About the author

William Cronon is the Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His book Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West won the Bancroft Prize in 1992.