Reviews - Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

70 reviews for:

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England

A fascinating examination of New England's ecosystem before and during colonization. If you liked 1491, Guns Germs and Steel or Braiding Sweetgrass, this book is worth looking for.

It was published in 1983 and republished in 2003. I couldn't find it at my library or get it from Powell's. Eventually found it on Thriftbooks.

refugetoken's review against another edition

5.0

informative slow-paced

“Academic page turner” is not an oxymoron

dragonlady01's review against another edition

5.0

Absolutely loved this book! Take History and put an Environmental spin on it and you get a bigger picture than any grade school class would ever give you!

roam_'s review against another edition

4.0

This is my second time through the book - it is a quick listen or read on Scribd. The book won the Francis Parkman prize in 1983 and is considered to be one of the first environmental histories out there. I appreciate the book for the following reason- it relentlessly sticks to the documented past in terms of what we know about the trees, land use practices, and the impact of imported beings from microbes to domestic livestock AND this scant evidence explains the relentless degradation of the New England landscape from the 1500’s to the 1700’s. The need for new fields when others have been farmed to arid death; the need for wood lots to feed roaring fires in big houses; the need for grazing land as well as land for growing hay; the need to clear wetlands so as to remove places for predators such as wolves to hide; and on and on and the footprint expanded.

The plantain was called the Englishman’s foot by the Natives who found this new weed growing in their fields - Natives being displaced by disease, force, and environmental assault.

His final line - the people of plenty were the people of waste. And this is well-supported with the written record of environmental changes wrought in the landscape again and again and again.

abbyvv's review against another edition

4.0

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

nomadjg's review against another edition

4.0

This is so readable! It is a bit sad that it now feels a bit dated. However, the good news is that it feels dated because Indigenous scholars are rocking out.