Reviews
A well-executed regional history that serves as a powerful example of the necessity of environmental history focused on the intimate details of both natural and cultural landscapes.
James Rice successfully combines all three endeavors in an impressive study of the interplay of Indians, Europeans, and the environment in the Potomac Valley... Scholars of Indian history, environmental history, early American history, and anyone who wants to take a fresh look at this area of the country will appreciate this fine book.
This refreshing book should serve as a model for future studies of colonial America examining particular places and the peoples who lived there.
This well-written important new book—persuasively argued and firmly rooted in the evidence—deserves a wide readership among students of early America, and it might just help to push the field in a welcome new direction.
Rice's contribution provides a successful model for future studies of the region's colonial history and should prove indispensable for anyone interested in the social, economic, and environmental history of the southern colonies.
Innovative and vividly written, this important book provides a fine example of a new, more comprehensive approach to the study of the colonial experience... Rice's contribution provides a successful model for future studies of the region's colonial history and should prove indispensable for anyone interested in the social, economic, and environmental histories of the southern colonies.
Rice's account is an absorbing history, elegantly told.
A valuable contribution to environmental history.
Book Details
Preface
A Note on Language and Usage
Introduction
1. Ahone's Waters
2. Foragers into Farmers
3. "Kings" of the Potomac
4. The Nature of Colonization
5. Peltries and "Papists"
6. "You Come Too Near"
7. Microbes
Preface
A Note on Language and Usage
Introduction
1. Ahone's Waters
2. Foragers into Farmers
3. "Kings" of the Potomac
4. The Nature of Colonization
5. Peltries and "Papists"
6. "You Come Too Near"
7. Microbes, Magistrates, and Migrations
8. "Away with All These Distractions"
9. "Frightened Away by Some Threatening Discourses"
10. "I Can Not Live in This Beautiful Land"
11. The Trouble with Boundaries
12. The Backcountry Transformed
13. "The Finest Country I Ever Was In"
Coda
Notes
Index