Note from the Editors

Abstract

Next article FreeNote from the EditorsStephen Brain, Mark D. Hersey, Catherine Dunlop, and Sarah Stanford-McIntyreStephen Brain Search for more articles by this author , Mark D. Hersey Search for more articles by this author , Catherine Dunlop Search for more articles by this author , and Sarah Stanford-McIntyre Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmailPrint SectionsMoreTurn your back on Mother Nature,Everybody wants to rule the world.—Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes, Songs from the Big ChairAs the fledgling field of environmental history sought to gain scholarly traction in the 1980s, it found common ground with pop stars from the era, who also warned of the dangers stemming from the attempt to exert control over the nonhuman world. The ensuing years would see the field’s audience grow—less explosively than that of Tears for Fears but perhaps more enduringly—as its studies grew increasingly sophisticated. Along the way, it developed new overlaps with myriad historical subfields that collectively underscored how profoundly intertwined the human experience has been with the ostensibly natural world.Those overlaps are evident in the two monographic articles in this issue. Thomas Turnbull’s study of the RAND Corporation and its 1970s-era research in alternative energy highlights the field’s strong connections to the history of science in identifying the novel application of systems analyses and cybernetics within that research and its inadvertent legacy of fostering a conviction that economic growth wasn’t necessarily tied to energy consumption. Rebecca Wright’s essay underlines the field’s strong connections to urban and social history by demonstrating how a 1918 mandate by New York City’s Department of Health that required buildings to be heated to a uniform temperature fostered the development of an “invisible energy policy” that has shaped energy consumption and entailed unintended environmental injustices ever since.Rather different historiographical shifts are evident in this issue’s forum. Jason Newton, Willa Brown, and Mark McLaughlin draw on a long-standing thread in forest history to make the case that the idea of a “timber frontier” might be worth revisiting when tracing the history of North America’s forests. Graeme Wynn and Ellen Stroud are more circumspect about the possibilities of doing so given the cultural freight that the notion of a frontier often carries, but agree with the authors that the intersection of forest history and environmental history is long overdue for regeneration. Indeed, the feature includes a call for a follow-up forum that looks at the history of forests elsewhere in the world.In the Gallery essay, Yota Batsaki analyzes how the German artist Anselm Kiefer merged the concepts of present and geological time in his 2014 installation Ages of the World. This stunning three-dimensional work, she argues, offers historians a fresh way of thinking about the Anthropocene. While few of the books reviewed in this issue place the Anthropocene at their center, many explore the complex, systemic linkages between environments and capitalism, while other reviewed works focus on state action and environmental restoration. Like Ages of the World, the books underscore the harm extractive systems have wrought but offer hope that such works of history might provide us with policy road maps and impetus for social change.The same might be said for the articles that have appeared in the past year’s volume. As we write this note in mid-June, new headlines continue to remind us of how inextricably intertwined the human experience is with the natural world, and how fraught those connections are. Environmentalists understandably worried when the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Sackett v. EPA, which marked a significant curtailment of the EPA’s regulatory authority over wetlands and waterways in the United States. Shortly after the decision, much of the United States, especially its Northeast, saw its skies grow hazy—famously orange in New York City—as a consequence of widespread forest fires in Canada. The articles in this volume alone that center on wetlands and waterways, on forest fires and environmental injustice, on disease and imperialism, offer salient reminders of just how relevant the work of environmental historians remains. It seems unlikely this will change anytime soon, so keep the manuscripts coming. We look forward to seeing them. Next article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ahead of Print Published for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society HistoryPublished online September 19, 2023 © 2023 Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.