MARK FIEGE. The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States. JAMES MORTON TURNER. The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964.

Abstract

First proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in 1972, the theory of “punctuated equilibrium” holds that evolutionary change tends to happen rapidly at rare moments rather than gradually and steadily through the ages. Looking at the earth's fossil record, the two scientists found long periods of species stasis interrupted by comparatively brief moments of species divergence, what others (meaning to be funny) later called “evolution by jerks.” These days, pondering environmental history, I wonder if the field's change over time (or lack of it) might also be explained this way. From its formal founding in the mid-1970s to the turn of the new century, environmental historiography exhibited fairly unremarkable variation in standard periodization, favored topics, key figures, and dominant perspectives. During the last few years, however, there have been signs of a creative burst starting to happen. Several recently published articles and books seem to embody truly fresh approaches to conceptualizing and understanding people's past relationship with nature.