In "Man and Nature," first published in 1864, polymath scholar and
diplomat George Perkins Marsh challenged the general belief that
human impact on nature was generally benign or negligible and
charged that ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean had brought
about their own collapse by their abuse of the environment. By
deforesting their hillsides and eroding their soils, they had
destroyed the natural fertility that sustained their well-being.
Marsh offered his compatriots in the United States a stern warning
that the young American republic might repeat these errors of the
ancient world if it failed to end its own destructive waste of
natural resources. Marsh's ominous warnings inspired conservation
and reform. In linking culture with nature, science with history,
"Man and Nature" was the most influential text of its time next to
Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," published just five years
earlier.
In his Introduction to this new edition, David Lowenthal places
"Man and Nature" in the context of recent scholarship and evaluates
its significance for the environmental movement that has emerged
since the latter part of the twentieth century. He also paints a
vivid portrait of the book's brilliant, passionate, wide-ranging,
and sometimes choleric author.
Although what we know and what we fear about the environment
have vastly amplified since Marsh's day, his appraisal of forest
cover and erosion remains largely valid, his cautions about
watershed control still cognent, and his call for stewardship ever
more pertinent. "Man and Nature" is worth reading not only for
having taught lessons crucial in its day, but for teaching them
still so well.
David Lowenthal is professor emeritus of geography at University
College London. His books include "George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of
Conservation, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History," and
"The Past Is a Foreign Country."
" "Man and Nature was"] the rudest kick in the face that
American initiative, optimism, and carelessness had yet received."
- Wallace Stegner
"It is no exaggeration to say that "Man and Nature" launched the
modern conservation movement. It helped Americans in the second
half of the nineteenth century recognize the damage they were doing
to the natural environment, and challenged them to behave in more
responsible ways toward the earth and its natural systems. . . .
"Man and Nature" stands right next to "Silent Spring" and "A Sand
County Almanac" by any measure of historic significance." - from
the Foreword by William Cronon
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