Our Natural History - Hardcover

Botkin, Daniel B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399140484 ISBN 13: 9780399140488

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995

Synopsis

A journey along the same trail originally followed by Lewis and Clark argues that the idealized "balance of nature" has never existed and explains that nature is in a perpetual, and sometimes radical, state of change.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel B. Botkin, Ph.D., is director of the Program for Global Change at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Reviews

This intriguing volume begins with Lewis and Clark's search for a pass in the Rocky Mountain wilderness; it ends with the author's search for original prairie in Omaha, Nebraska. Botkin (Discordant Harmony: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century) describes the American West as seen by Lewis and Clark in 1804-06 and compares it with today's West as shaped by industrial civilization. It is a unique picture of frontier wilderness, interwoven with Botkin's own perspective on nature. He maintains that our present approach to environmental issues is based on faulty beliefs, mythologies and religious convictions. The records of Lewis and Clark are valuable for helping us understand what nature was like before we changed it. Botkin notes that we rarely approach conservation with the methodical intensity found in the explorers' journals. He has given us a fresh and welcome perspective on that historic expedition. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Botkin, president of the Center for the Study of the Environment and director of the Program on Global Change at George Mason University, examines the journals of Lewis and Clark to understand change in nature. His question is "What was nature like before modern, technological civilization?" For people to have a better, more secure future, Botkin asserts that they must understand their relationship with the environment. They must know not only their own history but the history of nature as well. Addressing timeless topics, Botkin blends the historic past with the newsworthy present to offer solutions for the future. Recommended for all libraries.
Patricia Owens, Wabash Valley Coll., Mt. Carmel, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Botkin, a distinguished biologist, naturalist, and prolific author, believes that our limited and outmoded conception of nature is at the root of our environmental problems. We have all the science and technology we need for coping with such dire situations as the destruction of forests and the extinction of species, but we lack the kind of perspectives and ideas that would enable us to use this knowledge productively. Botkin's quest for a viable natural history led him to the exhaustive chronicles of the remarkable Lewis and Clark expedition. Lewis, Clark, and company conducted a 7,000-mile odyssey and methodically observed, collected, measured, and mapped under the most demanding and exhausting of circumstances. Botkin puts their precious and amazingly detailed information to brilliant use as he compares their world with ours. His discussions of the fate of rivers, grizzlies, buffaloes, wolves, salmon, forests, prairies, and the people who called this "wilderness" home for centuries are hard hitting and provocative. We can only hope that books like this will steer us toward a more respectful and environmentally sound way of life. Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399140484
• ISBN 13: 9780399140488
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300