Return to Bibliography

Cronon, William.  Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
 

In the preface, Cronon states the book is an “ecological history of New England.”  In order to reveal this history, the interrelations between the populations of New England (i.e. Native Americans, colonists, as well as wildlife) must be described.  Using ecological and historical sources, Cronon describes these relationships, reminding us that the pre-colonial ecosystem was a result of a cumulative sequence of ecological processes and historical events [viii].  He then describes the ways different populations interacted with the environment.  These differences were not only due to the population’s vision of nature as a commodity (or not), but also due to their varying views of land and property ownership.  Native Americans practiced mobility, exploiting the seasonal diversity of the land [37], while colonists were sedentary, firmly believing in bounding land (via fences).  Cronon depicts the effects of these beliefs upon nature and concludes with the ecological changes resulting in the compelled sedentary life of Native Americans.  Throughout the book explicit relations between animal and plant species and man are shown, such as that of the beaver and its disappearance, various deforestation and fertilization methods, and the import of weeds from Europe.  One can see the relationships between nature and man, man and man, nature and nature are intertwined, forever influencing one another. [J. Hembree]