TheProblemofNature:Environment,CultureandEuropeanExpansion

Thisbookconsidershownature-inbothitsbiologicalandenvironmentalmanifestations-hasbeeninvokedasadynamicforceinhumanhistory.Itshowshowhistorians,philosophers,geographers,anthropologistsandscientistshaveusedideasofnaturetoexplaintheevolutionofcultures,tounderstandculturaldifference,andtojustifyorcondemncolonization,slaveryandracialsuperiority.Itexaminesthecentralpartthatideasofenvironmentalandbiologicaldeterminismhaveplayedintheory,anddescribeshowtheseideashaveservedindifferentwaysatdifferenttimesasinstrumentsofauthority,identityanddefiance.Thebookshowshowpowerfulandproblematictheinvocationofnaturecanbe.TheProblemofNaturecoversawholecycleofenvironmentalhistoryanditsinterpretation,fromtheBlackDeathinthefourteenthcentury,thefirstEuropeanvoyagesofdiscoveryandtheopeningoftheAmericanfrontierthroughtotheimperialismofthenineteenthcenturyandtheexampleofIndiaundercolonialrule.DavidArnoldshowshowboththenaturalenvironmentandideasaboutnaturehavechangedradicallyoverthelastfivecenturies.Theauthordescribestheprofoundinfluencethathistoricalandsocialtheoryandthebiologicalscienceshavehaduponeachother.HeshowshowtheoutcomesoftheirinteractionnotonlyinformedandshapedtheEuropeanimpactupontheworldandonitself,buthowcrucialtheyaretoAmericanconceptionsofthesocietyandhistoryoftheUnitedStates.Heprovidesprovocativeanswerstothequestionsofwhatroletheenvironmentshouldhaveintheconceptualizationoftimeandplace;andofhowfarsocietiesandtheirhistoriescanbeunderstoodfromtheperspectivesofnaturalandbiologicalsciences.