George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of Conservation
George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) was the first to reveal the menace of environmental misuse, to explain its causes, and to prescribe reforms. David Lowenthal here offers fresh insights, from new sources, into Marsh's career and shows his relevance today, in a book which has its roots in but wholly supersedes Lowenthal's earlier biography George Perkins Marsh: Versatile Vermonter (1958). Marsh's devotion to the repair of nature, to the concerns of working people, to women's rights, and to...
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G.P. Marsh wrote what William Cronon calls in his foreword, one of America's three most important environmental texts, Man and Nature (1864) (the other two were Silent Spring and Sand County Almanac). Man and Nature argued that deforestation led to the demise of civilization: that because the ancients cut down their trees, there was erosion, drought alternating with floods, and climate change, the latter because moist forests no longer evaporated water into the atmosphere to cause rain and cooler temperatures. Environmental disaster then led to economic and social disaster. Perkins seems to have predicted the future, but this time it will no longer be confined to this or that area. In addition to Man and Nature, Marsh was a linguist who spoke some 20 languages, as well as a congressman, lawyer, and diplomat who served as U.S. envoy to Turkey and Italy for 25 years. He also helped found and guide the Smithsonian Institution. Lowenthal, emeritus professor of geography, University College, London, published an earlier biography of Marsh in 1958. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Environmental History Masterful summaries of complex Balkan and Italian politics, power struggles at the Smithsonian, small-town life in Woodstock and Burlington, big-town life in Washington D.C. and Turin...One of the classics of environmental biography.
\ Christina TreeClassic...a compelling read.\ —Boston Globe\ \ \ \ \ Environmental HistoryMasterful summaries of complex Balkan and Italian politics, power struggles at the Smithsonian, small-town life in Woodstock and Burlington, big-town life in Washington D.C. and Turin...One of the classics of environmental biography.\ \ \ Historical GeographyEvery page, almost every line, of this remarkable book shines with the scholarship, learning and insight of both the subject and the author.\ \ \ \ \ NatureA vivid portrait of Marsh against his intellectual and social background...Lowenthal is the ideal biographer...Everyone should come away with a better appreciation of a man who was a century ahead in recognizing many of our environmental problems and who addressed them at a fundamental level.\ \ \ \ \ Providence JournalAnyone with an interest in protecting the environment should not miss it.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalNew biographical expectations, new historical and environmental insights, and the availability of new primary sources inspired Lowenthal (professor emeritus of geography, University Coll., London) to revise his 1958 biography of George Perkins Marsh. A lawyer, farmer, manufacturer, congressman, diplomat, scholar, linguist, and pioneer conservationist, Marsh is best known for Man and Nature, first published in 1864. A lifetime of study and keen observation helped him understand the impact of humans on the environment and the resulting social, economic, and political ramifications. Considerable history is included in this biography, which ranges from antebellum America, the Civil War, and Reconstruction to Turkey, the Middle East, and the story of Italian unification; Marsh witnessed them all. Marsh was a product of Puritan New England, with all the attendant class prejudices, but as Lowenthal demonstrates, he had a modern, holistic world view as well. Recommended for all libraries, especially those with environmental collections.--Patricia Ann Owens, Wabash Valley Coll., Mt. Carmel, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\\\ \ \ \ \ EconomistMr. Lowenthal deserves considerable credit for bringing to life the career and ideas of an important green forerunner.\ \
