Changes in the Land

"Written with an elegant simplicity of style, this pioneering study has become an enduring classic in the fields of American colonial and environmental history." -Howard R. Lamar, Yale University

Changes in the Land is an original and persuasive interpretation of the changing circumstances in New England's plant and animal communities that occurred with the shift from Indian to European dominance. With the tools of both historian and ecologist, William Cronon constructs a brilliant interdisciplinary analysis of how the land and the people influenced one another, and how that complex web of relationships shaped New England's communities.

"[By] appraising evidence that ranges from fossil pollen counts to Puritan court documents, William Cronon explain[s] how the farming practices and commercial instincts of the early English Colonists destroyed the region's flourishing forest habitat - and doomed New England's native Indians with it . . . Cronon's eloquent book has the rigor of first-rate history and the power of tragedy." -Jim Miller, Newsweek

"The book's greatest contribution is bringing together work from so many sources in a wide range of disciplines and in focusing it through the lens of ecological concerns." -Karen Ordahl Kupperman, The Journal of American History