Synopses & Reviews
Many of the worldandrsquo;s major cities sprang up on the banks of rivers. Used for water, food, irrigation, transportation, and power, rivers sustain life and connect the world together, but most of us think of them simply as waterways that must be crossed on the way to another place. Using four European and two North American rivers as examples, A Story of Six Rivers considers the place of rivers in our world and emphasizes the inextricable links between history, culture, and ecology.and#160;Peter Coates explores six rivers, chosen as examples of the types of rivers found on the planet: the Danube, the second-longest river in Europe; the Spree, which flows through Berlin; the Po, which cuts eastward across northern Italy; the Mersey in northwest England; the Yukon, which runs through Canada and Alaska; and the Los Angeles in California. Creating a series of river biographies, Coates gives voice to each of these bodies of water, exploring how rivers nurture us, provide cultural and economic opportunities, and pose threats to our everyday lives. He challenges recent narratives that paint rivers as the victims of abuse, pollution, and damage at the hands of humans, focusing on change rather than devastation. Describing how humans and rivers form a symbioticandmdash;and sometimes mutually destructiveandmdash;relationship, Coates argues that rivers illustrate the limits of human authority and that their capacity to inspire us is as strong as our ability to pollute them.and#160;An intimate portrait of the way these bodies of water inform our lives, A Story of Six Rivers will make us reconsider the streams and tributaries we traverse each day.
Review
and#8220;A remarkably nuanced and richly researched overview of U.S. attitudes toward alien species, providing an eminently readable account about how Americans have come to view this foreign element in their forests, fields, waterways, and flyways.and#8221;
Synopsis
Sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose, humans have transported plants and animals to new habitats around the world. Arriving in ever-increasing numbers to American soil, recent invaders have competed with, preyed on, hybridized with, and carried diseases to native species, transforming our ecosystems and creating anxiety among environmentalists and the general public. But is American anxiety over this crisis of ecological identity a recent phenomenon? Charting shifting attitudes to alien species since the 1850s, Peter Coates brings to light the rich cultural and historical aspects of this story by situating the history of immigrant flora and fauna within the wider context of human immigration. Through an illuminating series of particular invasions, including the English sparrow and the eucalyptus tree, what he finds is that we have always perceived plants and animals in relation to ourselves and the polities to which we belong. Setting the saga of human relations with the environment in the broad context of scientific, social, and cultural history, this thought-provoking book demonstrates how profoundly notions of nationality and debates over race and immigration have shaped American understandings of the natural world.
Synopsis
"Anyone who thinks worry about invasive species is a new phenomenon should think again! Coates depicts a 19th century America awash in fear of starlings, English sparrows, Hessian flies, gypsy moths, and tree-of-heaven. This is a scholarly yet lively review of the factors that have shaped attitudes towards introduced species, replete with innumerable vignettes of surprising critics and defenders of various new arrivals. Any aficionado of invasions will be enthralled."and#151;Dan Simberloff, author of
Strangers in Paradise: Impact and Management of Nonindigenous Species in Florida"This is a fascinating work of scholarship, one I could hardly put down. It is a must read for anyone interested in the social and moral context of managing non-native species."and#151;Dov Sax, co-editor of Species Invasions: Insights into Ecology, Evolution, and Biogeography
About the Author
Peter Coates is Reader in American and Environmental History in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Bristol, UK. Among his books is Nature: Western Attitudes Since Ancient Times (UC Press).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Strangers and Natives
Knowing Nature through Nationality
The Naming of Strangers
The Alien Menace: Humanizing Nature and Naturalizing Humans
Our Fellow Immigrants
Strangers on the Land
2. The Avian Conquest of a Continent
Transatlantic Flights
Flying Feathers
The Stranger Finch
There Goes the Neighborhood: Dispossessing the Rightful Tenants of Land and Sky
Standing up for Poor Jack
The Cockney Cousin
The Successful and Exemplary Sparrow
3. Plants, Insects, and Other Strangers to the Soil
Floral Menace and Floral Promise
Strange Fruits: The Enrichment of Nature
Determining Desirability
Shutting the Door on Plant Plunderers
The Menace of Plant Quarantines
A Horticultural Ellis Island
The Rediscovery of Native Value
4. Arboreal Immigrants
Natural Beauty and Foreign Beauty
The Glamor of a Foreign Name
The Tree That Grew in Brooklyn (and Nearly Everywhere Else)
The Strange Career of the Universal Australian
The Tarnished Tree: Californiaand#8217;s Raging Eucalyptus Controversy
Eucalyptus Eulogy: The Natural Value of Heritage
Getting Back to (Lost) Nature: Restoring Original California
Landscapes of Purity and Intolerance
5. The Nature of Alien Nation
The Nature of Fear and the Greening of Hate
Wilted Metaphors and Calling Strangers Names
Flora and Fauna That Are Here to Stay
The Globalization of Nature and the Universal Sparrow
The Historianand#8217;s Contribution
Notes / 191
Index / 249