The Pacific Raincoast: Environment and Culture in an American Eden, 1778-1900 (Development of Western Resources) - Hardcover

Bunting, Robert

9780700608058: The Pacific Raincoast: Environment and Culture in an American Eden, 1778-1900 (Development of Western Resources)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700608052 ISBN 13: 9780700608058

Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas, 1996

From the first sustained contact between Native and European Americans to Frederick Weyerhaeuser's purchase of 900,000 acres of Washington forest, argues that the Pacific Northwest was never as pristine nor as viciously exploited as some have argued. Rather than a version of the traditional Rape of the Wilderness narrative, finds complex relations among competing cultures for resources amid what looked like inexhaustible abundance between northern California and southern Canada. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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From the Back Cover:

"Robert Bunting offers us a fascinating and exemplary medley of regional, environmental, and social history. The research is thorough, the description vivid and compelling, the analysis forthright and persuasive, and the writing is clear and cogent. Above all, the author eloquently champions the imperiled beauty and biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest."--Alan Taylor, author of William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic

"This engaging and important book illuminates a great many dark corners and forgotten places beyond as well as in the Douglas-fir region. Blending narrative and analysis in wonderfully deft and readable ways, Bunting shows us two very different methods of managing land and water--and their consequences. This volume should enjoy a wide audience, both inside and outside academe."--James P. Ronda, author of Astoria and Empire

"Provides a dynamic and fascinating new view of the historical relationship between peoples and environment in the region."--Carlos Schwantes, author of The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History

"A meticulously sculpted and carefully researched inquiry into the relationship between culture and the natural world of the Douglas-fir bioregion in the Pacific Northwest. Bunting effectively moves his discussion beyond Richard White's classic study, Land Use, Environment, and Social Change, into the realm of the most advanced work in recent environmental history. A richly textured story of myth, illusion, abundance, and finally, ambiguity."--William G. Robbins, author of Colony and Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West

About the Author:

Robert Bunting is assistant professor of history and Southwest studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He is a native of Oregon and a fourth generation Pacific Northwesterner.

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