Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mauch, Christof

Titel

Which World Is with Us? A Tocquevillian View on American Environmental History

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.), 2013-06, Vol.100 (1), p.124-127

Ort / Verlag

Oxford: Organization of American Historians

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Quelle

Oxford Journals 2020 Humanities

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Here, Igler comments on Peter Sutter's essay "The World with Us: The State of American Environmental History," that discusses the explosive growth of American environmental history. He says the title of Sutter's article perfectly captures the shift toward "hybridity" in American environmental history. "Man and nature" and nature and culture are no longer polar opposites; over the last few decades they have merged in environmental historians understanding. Sutter has done an excellent job of reviewing the literature, categorizing different types of histories, identifying historiographical developments, and analyzing the narratives and engagements of environmental historians in the US since the 1990s. Sutter's observations about the moral implications of the concept of hybridity are particularly perceptive. Indeed, once the line between human actors and nature is blurred, the concept of responsibility for the environment seems to lose its force and vitality. The epistemological dilemma at the core of Sutter's essay is, to a large extent, an American dilemma. From a Tocquevillian (detached, non-US) standpoint, American environmental historians' achievements over two generations are truly amazing.