The Environment's Impact on Society

First I would like to say that I really thought this book would be tiresome, but I was really surprized that it was an interesting read which actually offered a lot of new and important ideas about the environment that are not typically studied. I also thought that by beginning the book with references to Thoreau’s Walden, Cronon really made connections of this topic through other areas of study. Similarly, other writers and poets often wrote about their surroundings and looked to environmental importance and beauty within nature. To think about environmental history as a more recent form of history is interesting since authors or poets have been talking about the environment for centuries, while maybe not in a historical context, and often described the environment as something that has its own role in our world and not just as something that exists. Cronon seemed to share this idea that the environment can alter history by its destruction or creation of plant and animal species.

Prescott, Bloch and Cronon all have different levels of importance geared towards the environment and its impact on history. Cronon certainly sees the environment as impacting history while the others seem more likely to argue that people impact the environment and as a result are changing history. Prescott discussed the environment in terms of how it benefitted people by existing in its natural form. From what I can remember, I do not think he really talked about Cortez proactively using the environment for his benefit, in the way that Europeans may have used trees for firewood in America. Bloch discussed the environment in a more proactive way. He talked about how land was actually used for the advantage of others and how it was distributed among individuals to create a more orderly society. In that sense, he talked more about land itself rather than the use of resources, from what I remember. Cronon definitely talked about resources but also how the environment naturally changes and is therefore able to impact societies.