Americans and Their Forests

Americans and Their Forests A Historical Geography (Studies in Environment and History)

Paperback | July 1992 Author Michael Williams

When Europeans first reached the land that would become the United States they were staggered by the breadth and density of the forest they found. The existence of that forest, and the effort either to use or subdue it, have been constant themes in American history, literature, economics, and geography up to the present day. In Americans and Their Forests, Michael Williams tells us of the meaning of the forest in American history and culture, he describes and analyses the clearing and use of the forest from pre-European times to the present, and he traces the subsequent regrowth of the forest since the middle of the twentieth century.

Americans and Their Forests  – When Europeans first reached the land that would become the United States they were staggered by the breadth and density of the forest they found. The existence of that forest, and the effort either to use or subdue it, have been constant themes in American history, literature, economics, and geography up to the meaning of the forest in American history and culture, he describes and analyses the clearing and use of the forest from pre-European times to the present, and he traces the subsequent regrowth of the forest since the middle of the twentieth century. Dr Williams begins by exploring the role of the forest in American culture: the symbols, themes, and concepts – for example, pioneer woodsman, lumberjack, wilderness – generated by contact with the vast land of trees.