Miller, Daegan. 2018. This Radical Land: A Natural History of American Dissent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Abstract

Miller, Daegan. (2018). This Radical Land: A Natural History of American Dissent. Chicago: University of Chicago Press., 336 pp. $30.00. ISBN: 9780226336145. Daegan Miller’s book explores concepts such as environmentalism, wilderness, and community development in the context of 19th-century westward expansion and growth in the United States. Miller describes Henry David Thoreau’s interpretations of natural environments as a surveyor; the Adirondack land partitioned by Gerrit Smith for antebellum African American farmers; A. J. Russell’s photo-narrative of the Union Pacific Railroad; and the socialist Kaweah Colony in California situated at the foot of the “General Sherman” sequoia, briefly renamed “Karl Marx.” The tree figures prominently throughout the book as a landmark for, witness to, and victim of human exploits.