Cronon gives the environment a voice

Prescott, Bloch, and Cronon (like most historians) share the concern of uncovering what has previously been hidden in history to reveal new meaning.  Prescott uncovers the hidden genius of Cortes.  Bloch uncovers the extensive social relations between lords and vassals to explain a previously hidden social history.  Although Bloch and Prescott also demonstrate a concern for the environment, their concern is limited to how the environment set the stage for the people of interest as primary historical actors.  For instance, Prescott describes the mountain ranges to depict Cortes’ military genius, and Bloch describes coastlines and European geography to explain invasions and raids.  Cronon flips this concern on its head, and views the environment itself as an actor.  This reversal does the work of uncovering silences of the historical record because Cronon is looking at environmental changes that are invisible in other histories.

Cronon’s conception of environmental history seems to emerge from social history.  For example, like social historians and annalists, Cronon looks at sources and subjects in new ways and showing how elements of history are interrelated.  This examination of history, like that of social historians, begs for an interdisciplinary approach, which Cronon employs.  However, Cronon critiques social historians for ignoring the environment.  He argues, “Changes in the way people create and re-create their livelihood must be analyzed in terms of changes not only in their social relations but in their ecological ones as well” (13).  Here, Cronon implies that the work of economic and social historians has been limited. In providing the ecological history of colonial New England, Cronon is also describing a human history, making the point that it’s all related.