Visions of the Land: Science, Literature, and the American Environment from the Era of Exploration to the Age of Ecology (Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Environmental Humanities)

The work of John Charles Fremont, Richard Byrd, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John Wesley Powell, Susan Cooper, Rachel Carson, and Loren Eiseley represents a widely divergent body of writing. Yet despite their range of genres—including exploration narratives, technical reports, natural histories, scientific autobiographies, fictional utopias, nature writing, and popular scientific literature—these seven authors produced strikingly connected representations of nature and the practice of science in America from about 1840 to 1970. Michael A. Bryson provides a thoughtful examination of the authors, their work, and the ways in which science and nature unite them. Visions of the Land explores how our environmental attitudes have influenced and been shaped by various scientific perspectives from the time of western expansion and geographic exploration in the mid-nineteenth century to the start of the contemporary environmental movement in the twentieth century. Bryson offers a literary-critical analysis of how writers of different backgrounds, scientific training, and geographic experiences represented nature through various kinds of natural science, from natural history to cartography to resource management to ecology and evolution, and in the process, explored the possibilities and limits of science itself. Visions of the Land examines the varied, sometimes conflicting, but always fascinating ways in which we have defined the relations among science, nature, language, and the human community. Ultimately, it is an extended meditation on the capacity of using science to live well within nature. University of Virginia Press Visions Of The Land Looks At The Period From 1840 To 1970 Through The Works Of Seven Explorers, Scientists, And Writers, In Order To Examine The Various Ways Our Culture Has Viewed Nature. In This Ambitious Work, Michael A. Bryson Draws Upon A Wide Array Of References (narratives, Technical Reports, Natural Histories, Scientific Autobiographies, Fictional Utopias, And Popular Scientific Literature), To Better Illustrate The Constantly Changing Manner In Which Our Culture Has Chosen To Conceptualize Nature. Dividing The Book Into Three Parts, Narratives Of Exploration And The Scientist-hero, Imagined Communities And The Scientific Management Of Nature, And Nature's Identity And The Critique Of Science, Bryson Discusses The Works Of John C. Fremont, Richard Byrd, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John Wesley Powell, Susan Cooper, Rachel Carson, And Loren Eiseley--from H-net. I Saw Visions: John Charles Frémont And The Explorer-scientist As Nineteenth-century Hero -- The Evidence Of My Ruin: Richard Byrd's Antarctic Sojourn -- A Strange And Terrible Woman Land: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Scientific Utopia -- A Unit Of Country Well Defined In Nature: John Wesley Powell And The Scientific Management Of The American West -- The Earth Is The Common Home Of All: Susan Fenimore Cooper's Investigations Of A Settled Landscape -- The Relentless Drive Of Life: Rachel Carson's And Loren Eiseley's Reformulation Of Science And Nature. Michael A. Bryson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 201-214) And Index. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction ▪Part 1▪: Narratives of Exploration and the Scientist-Hero Chapter One: “I Saw Visions”: John Charles Frémont and the Explorer-Scientist as Nineteenth-Century Hero Chapter Two: “The Evidence of My Ruin”: Richard Byrd’s Antarctic Sojourn ▪Part 2▪: Imagined Communities and the Scientific Management of Nature Chapter Three: “A Strange and Terrible Woman Land”: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Scientific Utopia Chapter Four: “A Unit of Country Well Defined in Nature”: John Wesley Powell and the Scientific Management of the American West ▪Part 3▪: Nature’s Identity and the Critique of Science Chapter Five: “The Earth Is the Common Home of All”: Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Investigations of a Settled Landscape Chapter Six: “The Relentless Drive of Life”: Rachel Carson’s and Loren Eiseley’s Reformulation of Science and Nature Afterword Notes Bibliography Index This title explores how our environmental attitudes have been influenced and shaped by various scientific perspectives from the time of western expansion and geographic exploration in the mid-19th century to the start of the contemporary environmental movement in the 20th century.