The nineteenth-century saw a significant transformation in the United States. In one short century, the nation had seen the populating of the Great Plains and West, the decimation of native Indian tribes, the growth of national transportation and communication networks, and the rise of major cities. The century also witnessed the destruction of the nation’s forests, battles over land and water, and the ascent of agribusiness. With these changes in resource use patterns and values came a concordant shift in attitudes toward nature. Conservation and preservation emerged as watchwords for the 1900s. The century that started with an attitude of environmental conquest thus ended by embracing conservation and a new environmental awareness.

Nature and the Environment in Twentieth-Century America addresses a wide variety of the environmental issues that impacted the lives of people of all classes, races, and regions:

Western expansion and how the subsequent changes in the land impacted Native Americans and homesteaders

Urbanization and industrialization and the change in the lives of city dwellers

The disappearance of wildlife, such as the buffalo and the passenger pigeon

The advent of a new concern about the environment, from writers such as Thoreau to new grassroots environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club Part of the Daily Life through History series, this title joins Nature and the Environment in Twentieth-Century America in a new branch of the series-titles specifically looking at how nature and the environment impacted daily life.