FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W2016080199> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W2016080199 endingPage "284" @default.
• W2016080199 startingPage "283" @default.
• W2016080199 abstract "Reviewed by: The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States by Mark Fiege Kathleen A. Brosnan (bio) The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States. By Mark Fiege. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012. Pp. 600. $34.95 cloth) In The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege challenges us to reexamine U.S. history through the lens of the environment. With well-chosen examples and elegant prose, he illuminates the nature at the heart of American civilization. “Within every famous icon, turning point, movement, or moment is a story of people struggling with the earthy, organic substances that are integral to the human predicament” (p. 8). Absent are the more traditional subjects of environmental history, such as Thoreau or the Wilderness Act. Fiege instead reinterprets nine historical events familiar to most Americans, such as the Salem witch trials, the Declaration of Independence, the emergence of King Cotton, the Civil War, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the Manhattan Project, and the 1973 oil shock. In an evocative chapter, Fiege highlights often-overlooked facts about Abraham Lincoln. As a child and young adult, Lincoln knew nature through his own work, challenging landscapes with the ax or rivers with the flatboat. Although he disliked its drudgery, he appreciated what labor produced; it improved his body, his mind, and the land. “And if improvement meant the fulfillment of nature’s potential to nurture and sustain human life, then by extension it also meant the fulfillment of nature’s potential to nurture and to sustain a democracy and the republican form of government built upon it” (p. 158). Lincoln’s experiences, as well as his judgment that the Declaration of Independence applied universally, shaped his political philosophy. Thus, slavery and its extension to the American West violated the laws of nature and “the inherent right of all people to control their bodies and immediate material circumstances” (p. 173). The preservation of the Union remained Lincoln’s priority after Fort Sumter, but the destruction of slavery constituted an essential improvement of nature and society. Nearly one hundred years later, the still-debated legacy of the [End Page 283] Declaration of Independence and the Civil War played out across the Topeka environment. Fiege asks us to understand the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) first and foremost as a case of racial geography. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the black residents of Topeka, Kansas, lived in geographically segregated but economically vital neighborhoods, both to maintain solidarities formed in slavery and its aftermath and to nurture community in the face of limited opportunities. By the mid-twentieth century, circumstances were different. “Demographic changes, environmental factors, and ideology impelled the integrationists” (p. 337). As the Santa Fe Railroad offered new jobs, many blacks moved to the fringes of their neighborhoods where they interacted with other races and resented their children’s long, often-dangerous commutes to black elementary schools. Linda Brown crossed a busy railroad zone and then waited for a twenty-minute bus ride, although a white school stood six blocks from her home. Fiege persuasively suggests that spatial and environmental relations shaped the Browns’ decision to litigate as much as ideology. In the end, however, despite the Supreme Court decision, the geography of Topeka challenged integration efforts. “In the messy landscapes of streets, houses, neighborhoods, long bus rides to distant schools, and frustrated parents, implementing the law would not be so easy. . . . The problem lay in the complexities of the geography of Topeka. There, the color line would not simply disappear” (p. 353). With The Republic of Nature, Fiege makes an original contribution that is a must-read for historians willing to challenge their assumptions about U.S. history. Fiege provides new insights into the fundamental events that shaped the nation. It is an eloquent, compelling argument that nature does indeed matter. [End Page 284] Kathleen A. Brosnan Kathleen A. Brosnan is the Travis Chair of History at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. The author of Uniting Mountain and Plain (2002) and the editor of the Encyclopedia of American Environmental History (2010), she is completing an environmental history of the Napa Valley wine..." @default.
• W2016080199 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W2016080199 creator A5036043709 @default.
• W2016080199 date "2013-01-01" @default.
• W2016080199 modified "2023-10-17" @default.
• W2016080199 title "<i>The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States</i> by Mark Fiege (review)" @default.
• W2016080199 doi "https://doi.org/10.1353/khs.2013.0040" @default.
• W2016080199 hasPublicationYear "2013" @default.
• W2016080199 type Work @default.
• W2016080199 sameAs 2016080199 @default.
• W2016080199 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W2016080199 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W2016080199 hasAuthorship W2016080199A5036043709 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C120452360 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C122302079 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C138147947 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C144024400 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C18903297 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C19165224 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C197099058 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C199539241 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C2776154427 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C2778607876 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C2778677346 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C6303427 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C86803240 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C95124753 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C120452360 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C122302079 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C138147947 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C138885662 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C144024400 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C17744445 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C18903297 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C19165224 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C197099058 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C199539241 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C2776154427 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C2778607876 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C2778677346 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C6303427 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C86803240 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C95124753 @default.
• W2016080199 hasConceptScore W2016080199C95457728 @default.
• W2016080199 hasIssue "2" @default.
• W2016080199 hasLocation W20160801991 @default.
• W2016080199 hasOpenAccess W2016080199 @default.
• W2016080199 hasPrimaryLocation W20160801991 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W1536697125 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2015647558 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2016080199 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2038861211 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2100798340 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2333265287 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2349262752 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W2767311837 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W4212806187 @default.
• W2016080199 hasRelatedWork W4242767284 @default.
• W2016080199 hasVolume "111" @default.
• W2016080199 isParatext "false" @default.
• W2016080199 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W2016080199 magId "2016080199" @default.
• W2016080199 workType "article" @default.