The use and abuse of America's natural resources predates European settlement by many centuries. Yet the prodigal abuse of nature's bounty which his book surveys makes for unsettling reading. Given the ravages of suburban sprawl and pollution, would Coles' pastoral panorama instead be one of "Paradise Lost"? Steinberg, who teaches history at Case Western Reserve University, carefully refrains from presenting North America as an Eden before the arrival of European colonists in the 1600s. history, it is disturbing to reflect on how Cole would paint such a scene today. In the foreground, a swathe of untamed wilderness stands in contrast to the gentle habitat of civilization.Īfter reading Down to Earth, Ted Steinberg's study of the role of nature in U.S. "View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm - the Oxbow" is a vista of a river meandering through sunlit plains and rolling hills. In 1836, Thomas Cole painted one of the first great masterpieces of American landscape art.
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