Uncommon Ground

William Cronon

What do we really mean by nature, and why do familiar beliefs about wilderness and our place in it need rethinking?

At a glance

You will question the ideal of untouched wilderness that environmentalists have long held up as the truest nature
You will notice the designed and sold versions of nature around you, from Olmsted's parks to nature shops at the mall
You will see how environmental harm and social justice meet, as poor city neighbourhoods fight polluting projects near their homes

The Albums
Contributors
Foreword to the Paperback Edition
BEGINNINGS
Introduction: In Search of Nature
PARADISE LOST AND FOUND
The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature
Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted
Amazonia as Edenic Narrative
Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative
AT WORK AND PLAY
“Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?”: Work and Nature
Looking for Nature at the Mall: A Field Guide to the Nature Company
“Touch the Magic”¹
CONTESTED TERRAINS
Ecological Fragmentation in the Fifties
On the Search for a Root Cause: Essentialist Tendencies in Environmental Discourse
Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests*
Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice
Universal Donors in a Vampire Culture: It’s All in the Family: Biological Kinship Categories in the Twentieth-Century United States
COMMON PLACES
Reinventing Common Nature: Yosemite and Mount Rushmore—A Meandering Tale of a Double Nature
Simulated Nature and Natural Simulations: Rethinking the Relation between the Beholder and the World
Toward a Philosophy of Nature
PARTINGS
Toward a Conclusion
On the Nature of Nature: An Eclectic Reading List