Examining such familiar topics as colonization, the industrial revolution, slavery, the Civil War, and the emergence of consumer culture, Steinberg recounts how the natural world influenced the course of human history. Now in a new edition, Down to Earth reenvisions the story of America 'from the ground up.' It reveals how focusing on plants, animals, climate, and other ecological factors can radically change the way that we think about the past. In this ambitious and provocative text, environmental historian Ted Steinberg offers a sweeping history of the United States-a history that places the environment at the very center of the narrative.
