Nature Incorporated
Industrialization and the Waters of New England
University of Massachusetts Press
A great deal of arrogance surrounds this late-twentieth-century attitude toward the environment, and a great deal of history as well. What started as a research paper at Brandeis University expanded into a book that explores the role of the Industrial Revolution in this aggressive stance toward the natural world. The transformation of nature is at least as old as our presence as a species on this planet. But the advent of the industrial age marked a shift in humankind's relations with the earth. Steinberg concerns himself mainly with describing this shift as it was felt in New England, to journey back to a time when the task of subduing nature was full of hard-fought battles and much less arrogance.
Steinberg has written a major contribution to not only environmental history, but to the history of industrialization itself. He has used the tools of legal history, social history, and technological history to create an environmental history of industrialization which should be read by all students of nineteenth-century America.'—Journal of Social History
'A clear, detailed and sometimes moving account of the industrialization of the Merrimack River Valley. . . It is a tale of environmental degradation and engineering triumph. It is also the story of how water came to be defined as private property. The author does an excellent job of showing the interconnections among dam builders, mill owners, farmer, and public health officials, who each saw the river system differently but who shared the belief that unused water wasted water. . . Everyone interested in environmental history, the history of business and technology, legal history, and the history of New England will want to read this book.'—Choice
'An important book for all interested in the developing fields of environmental history and political ecology.'—Human Ecology
'An imaginative and innovative work offering rich new perspectives on a familiar topic. It is a strong reminder of the contribution that interdisciplinary approaches so central to environmental history make to an understanding of the past.'—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Theodore Steinberg teaches history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Newark.
