Synopsis
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 historical stewardship resonate more than ever. His Vermont birthplace is now a national park chronicling American conservation, and the crusade he launched is now global.Marsh's seminal book "Man and Nature" is famed for its ecological acumen. The clue to its inception lies in Marsh's many-sided engagement in the life of his time. The broadest scholar of his day, he was an acclaimed linguist, lawyer, congressman, and renowned diplomat who served 25 years as U.S. envoy to Turkey and to Italy. He helped found and guide the Smithsonian Institution, shaped the Washington Monument, penned potent tracts on fisheries and on irrigation, spearheaded public science, art, and architecture. He wrote on camels and corporate corruption, Icelandic grammar and Alpine glaciers. His pungent and provocative letters illuminate life on both sides of the Atlantic.Like Darwin's "Origin of Species", Marsh's "Man and Nature" marked the inception of a truly modern way of looking at the world, of taking care lest we irreversibly degrade the fabric of humanised nature we are bound to manage. Marsh's ominous warnings inspired reforestation, watershed management, soil conservation, and nature protection in his day and ours. David Lowenthal is professor emeritus of geography at University College London. His books include "The Past Is a Foreign Country", "West Indian Societies", and "The Heritage Crusade" and the "Spoils of History".
Review
"A must for all serious students of cultural geography and the environment, whether their concern is with the past or with the present and the future." Yi-Fu Tuan, University of Wisconsin-Madison "Rarely have a writer and a subject been so well matched. In breadth of knowledge and depth of insight, David Lowenthal can be justly compared to the 19th-century polymath George Perkin Marsh. Based on fresh research as well as new perspectives, this book is much more than a biography, for it provides a fascinating portrait of the 19th-century transatlantic culture in which Marsh was such a central figure." John Gillis, Rutgers University "Although Thoreau's Walden and John Muir's writings on the High Sierra are now far better known, in fact neither had anything like the political impact of George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature, first published in 1864. Those who read David Lowenthal's fine biography will finally be able to appreciate what a remarkable man Marsh was, and what an extraordinary difference he made to the natural ecosystems that continue to sustain us in no small part because of what he wrote and did." From the Foreword by William Cronon "Mr Lowenthal ... deserves considerable credit for bringing to life the career and ideas of an important green forerunner."--The Economist, 21 October, 2000
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