Reasonable Use: The People, the Environment, and the State, New England 1790-1930

Rating:
Summary: An Absorbing History
Review: We've all heard the old saw that those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. As we face growing environmental crises throughout the globe at the outset of the 21st century, it's critical for those who hope to maintain our planet's delicate balance to understand the history behind environmental movements of the past, and where reformers have succeeded and failed in their efforts to confront a rapidly changing society's impact on the natural world.

In Reasonable Use, Cumbler, an environmental historian at the University of Louisville, traces the dramatic shift New England experienced between the Colonial era and the pre-World War II period. Focusing mostly on the 19th century and the impact of industrialization, overfishing, deforestation and the arrival of dams and cities along the Connecticut River during that time period, Cumbler describes not only how states like Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire reacted to increased pollution but also the characters who drove the responses and how each of the major players reflected broader themes and approaches to humans' role in the natural world.

The major players - people like Henry David Thoreau, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, George Perkins Marsh and Theodore Lyman - represented the range of elite thinking during that time. The questions they faced regarding the value of fish to an ecosystem, the effect of pollution on populations, the problem of waste disposal and - most important - the comparative merits of industrial progress versus a clean environment, are all questions that we still confront today. Though the unobservant reader may miss it, Cumbler also offers particularly pointed commentary on the critical lessons those who hope to effect environmental reforms today should learn from the failures of those who sought to go up against the entrenched powers of industry in 19th century New England.

So while the casual observer may mistakenly assume that this book will appeal primarily to those with a regional interest in the area and era, in fact Cumbler offers a wealth of judiciously documented thoughts on the nature of the relations of power, paarticularly as they interact when the object of the struggle - the environment - cannot speak for itself.

Also, besides delivering an engrossing and thoughful historical document, Cumbler additionally weaves a compelling tale that maintains the readers interest, even as he shares scientific data regarding such esoterica as the composition of dissolved oxygen in a water system or the workings of fishways in a dam. The book is well-written and deserves a broader audience than merely environmental history buffs. We can all pick up a thing or two from Henry Bowditch et al, and John Cumbler makes the lessons easy to learn.