1995 Chicago Heatwave

Chicago fell victim to a five-day heat wave in July 1995, which resulted in “over 600 excess deaths, 3300 excess emergency department visits and a substantial number of intensive care unit admissions for near-fatal heat stroke.” The event proved to be the second most deadly heat wave in United States history with heat indexes reaching a record high of 52 degrees Celsius. July 13 provided the highest temperature of the stretch, reaching 41 degrees Celsius. Rather than one specific reason the heat provided so many fatalities, but rather a combination of man-made environmental changes, ethnic changes and a few other aggravating factors. Between July 12 and July 17, heat-related deaths were so drastic there was no more room in the morgues. Left with few other options, corpses were kept in refrigerated trucks in parking lots. Ambulances were in short supply as emergency lines flooded with calls regarding heat-stroke. Additionally, the event had plenty of media coverage, with death tolls emblazoned on the television screens of Chicago’s viewers. Some argue the excess coverage caused the city’s residents to claim the event was a media fabrication in attempt to gain a larger audience. To this day, there are still those who remain skeptic regarding the disaster’s severity. However, the deaths were real and were exacerbated due to man’s interaction with the land.

The main source of the high death toll is derived from changes brought on by human settlement. The city environment which had developed resulted in an urban heat island. In the case of extreme warm temperatures, an urban heat island will likely prove deadly, as the blacktop used in a city’s excessive streets and the dark roofs of apartment buildings absorb heat and keep it there more so than typical throughout the night. In temperature studies of the event, researchers found nighttime heat in urban areas to be 2.6 degrees Celsius hotter than in rural areas. Typically, there is a .3 degree difference between urban and rural temperatures. This data shows the presence of the urban heat island in Chicago and how it worsened with the heat wave. Furthermore, dew point temperatures in the city were slightly higher at night than in daytime, as the ground absorbed and maintained high levels of heat. Due to the heat’s capture in the black surfaces, temperatures continued to rise. Not only were urban areas hot, but they built up heat. Additionally, the lakefront was significantly cooler than the more inland urban sprawl due to the lake’s breezes. Besides the issues arising from the urban heat island, the city also fell victim to a temperature inversion, which occurs when temperature rises with land height. During the disaster, the air became still and mostly devoid of wind, which left the resulting air to stagnate. Not only were warm air, humidity and pollution trapped within the urban heat island, but there was also no wind to carry it away. As a result, those without air conditioning essentially baked in their homes, with indoor temperatures averaging 32 degrees Celsius at night. In the case of the Chicago heat wave, the temperature inversion caused the effects of the urban heat island to be much worse than is typical.

Certain demographics featured higher death tolls as others as well in the disaster. While the elderly, who already had health issues, showed high mortality rates, particular races also suffered losses. In 1995, many of Chicago’s African-Americans were living in poverty so they stayed in public housing developments, such as Cabrini Green. The projects provided sub-standard housing and often had no air conditioning, which was a vital component to surviving the heat. Further worsening the situation were high levels of crime and gang activity in these areas. While opening a window may have assisted some in letting hot air move out of their homes, it could also attract a burglar or murderer. Rather than be victim to such an attack, everyone kept their windows shut and locked. Indeed, the areas with the highest death rates were between 94 and 99 percent African-American. As the CDC socially-examined the heat wave’s victims, they found higher vulnerability in those who “did not leave home daily, had a medical problem, were confined to bed, lived alone, or lacked air conditioning, access to transportation, and social contacts nearby.” In the case of those living in the Chicago slums, poverty left them with no air conditioning or transportation and the crime-rate left them scared of their neighbors. Interestingly, while many Hispanics also lived in poverty, their neighborhoods featured more social cohesion. Their neighbors were more likely to check up on each other during the heat wave, so social isolation was not so much of an issue. Still, many chose to overlook the surprising mortality statistics featured in the African-American community due to the “harvesting effect.” In the case of disasters such as this one, rather than the heat wave being the cause of death, it is often considered as a force which makes death more likely for those who are already ill. Thus the hot temperatures speed up the dying process rather than cause it completely. Researchers later decided there were 692 deaths in excess of those which would normally occur and only 26 percent could be attributed to the harvesting effect. Regardless, those living in the worst conditions were most likely to die due to heat-related illnesses in the disaster.

Still, there were further reasons for the event’s severity. The city of Chicago was not prepared to handle the disaster. City officials did not even claim the event as an emergency situation until the final day. While they did provide five cooling centers, the delay in declaring an emergency situation caused them to not be fully-utilized. Many died simply because hospitals were too packed to provide assistance and sufficient ambulances were lacking. While poverty-level was an important factor in maintaining electricity, many were without power regardless, as the city took on heat-related electrical outages.

Rising Tide: A Book Review

The Mississippi River is a monster of a natural feature, as it stretches from Canada to the Gulf and, through the network of tributaries, reaches from Idaho to New York. In some points it exceeds one  mile in width and discharges over a quarter million gallons of water each second. While the river is quite obviously the major churning force in John M Barry’s book, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, the author chooses to focus on the people surrounding the event. He begins with the story of those responsible for flood prevention, followed by an examination of how the flood unraveled the Delta culture and ends with a look at the media manipulation by Herbert Hoover. Through this look at the flood, Barry pieces together a narrative which does live up to its title by showing how the 1927 disaster “changed America.”

In the instance of the Mississippi flood, the main figures he starts the book with are James Eads, a civilian engineer, and Andrew Humphreys, a military engineer. The two men are pitted against each other in the book with a similar river obsession. As the author points out quite well, “one had genius; one had power.” Eads in generally portrayed as the protagonist who really just wishes to control the river. Meanwhile, Humphreys is depicted as a more interesting character. He is shown to be an unimaginable egoist, whose “pleasure was to stop him [Eads].” The two men appear to constantly change ideas of how the river should be maintained, but it appears that Eads was in favor of a series of jetties, while Humphreys wished for canals. Confusingly, they both fickly exchange stances throughout the text, although it is always made clear that the opposition is wrong. A third engineer, Charles Ellet, appears in contrast with the two men. Although he was a rival of Eads and Humphrey, they did not consider him a formidable opponent. Ellet was not as obsessed with the river as Eads or Humphreys. Working with the Mississippi was just his job. Despite his position on his work, Ellet went on to publish a celebrated report on the river, which infuriated Humphreys. However, Humphreys could not stay mad at him for too long, as Ellet died in the war. Still, by writing on Ellet, one can see exactly how intense Eads and Humphreys were in their work. While this was just a job to Ellet, the river was their life. Their work culminated in the development of Mississippi River Commission, which should have been a victory for Eads, as Humphrey turned in his resignation on the day of the bill’s passage. However, the Mississippi River Commission chose to adopt a plan which was not favored by either man. The commission opted to go with a levees-only policy, which would in turn only cause the flood to increase in severity.

As the book’s subtitle suggests, “the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.. changed America.” Particularly, the flood changed the delta culture which had formed in the South. Prior to the flood, the area’s people got along generally harmoniously. Racism was not a major issue as there was an uneasy, yet operative, coexistence between blacks and whites. Barry presents a very favorable viewpoint of sharecroppers in relation to land owners, which is atypical of Southern history. Black labor was supported in this area as a manner of promoting the color-line. Blacks would have to take on manual labor and whites could profit from it. Additionally, the sharecroppers would be underpaid and were forced into only shopping at stores owned by the companies for which they were working. The system was especially favorable for white landowners and black sharecroppers were grateful for it as this treatment, despite its obvious racism, was preferential to any other area in the South. Specifically, Barry examines Greenville, Mississippi, which was governed by Senator LeRoy Percy, a planter who, prior to the flood, was considered a progressive and model citizen. He originally worked against racism through efforts to halt the Ku Klux Klan. The flood flushed away Percy’s paternalistic attitude towards the black citizens, replaced with a more abusive front. Not only were blacks forced into slavery by being used to fill sandbags at the levees, but they were even used as sandbags as the situation became more desperate. The National Guard moved in and resorted to whipping the blacks while the black women were raped. Meanwhile, the whites hoarded the Red Cross rations, leaving the race not only exhausted but also starved. Barry tells of how the whites would not allow the blacks to eat the canned peaches, specifically, because they did not want to “spoil them” or leave them to develop expensive habits. Post-flood, William Walker Percy wished to just ship the blacks out of the area, but then there would have been no one left to work the plantations. Instead of allowing them to leave the delta, blacks were then forced to stay, although they were stranded and starved. Essentially, a very racially-progressive family developed into brutal racists due to the flood. As a result, once they regained mobility, the blacks fled the area, migrating to St. Louis or Chicago.

Whereas most biographers are sympathetic to Herbert Hoover, Barry sees him as a master manipulator, who was both brilliance and opinionated. Being quite the opportunist, Hoover took the flood as a ticket to saving his failing presidential aspirations. Since he was especially interested in the use of media portrayal in order to gain the presidency, he wrote letters to any newspapers which chose to criticize him. In taking on the task of flood relief organization, he often lied to protect his own ego. Specifically, he lied in regards to the death count in order to make his efforts appear more successful. The book contains an account of how he manipulated black leader, Robert Moton of the Colored Advisory Commission, through false promises of a resettlement plan using mortgages. Hoover played on the ideas instilled through Booker T Washington regarding the gaining of independence and the ownership of property in order to break through to the middle class. Hoover chose to manipulate Moton  in order to guarantee the Southern conservative vote. He also insisted on getting as many volunteer workers involved in the relief efforts so as to limit governmental control, which is a display of his idealism and limited ideology. However, his ability to spin the media did work out in his benefit as he did become president. However, the most notable event of his presidency was the Great Depression. His handling of this economic disaster has marked him as a bad president, although modern historians are now claiming he was ill-prepared to handle the event. Regardless, the flood relief project foreshadows his handling of the Great Depression, through which he was forced to admit that volunteerism is not a solution and government control is necessary. Through that viewpoint, sympathy toward Hoover is shown as unjustified, as he already had a trial run at handling a national disaster, which he did not really handle and pushed others to clear up through volunteerism.

As is the case in Barry’s later title, The Great Influenza, the use of narrative told through people can make the real story confusing. While it is necessary to know what happened, the reader would benefit from at least a simple and easily-comprehended paragraph blatantly explaining, for instance, the positions of Eads and Humphreys. One might gather from the text that they often changed their minds on whether to use jetties, canals or levees. If that is the case, the book could be easier to read if it specifically said that somewhere. Essentially, Barry likes to show rather than tell, but he needs to leave that sort of writing to poets. In regards to this section, more in depth explanation of the benefits and disadvantages of the various river control methods could clarify exactly what it is these two men were fighting over so passionately. However, the section pertaining to the Eads/Humphreys feud is much worse than his tales of the Percy family or Hoover. His writing-style works much better in those stories. He needs to learn how to adapt his writing-style to take on different historical events. What works for one situation might not work for another. Also, if he did want to focus on the feuding, the book would be more interesting if he focused on Humphreys more, as he seems to be pretty much out of control in general. While he does feature this in the book, maybe he should have picked him as a central character and told the story from there, as he does with Herbert or Percy. His writing method is much more effective in those situations where he has a singular focus rather than several which he attempts to tie together. The book is quite the dense and weighty tome and is acceptable upper-level college reading, although it is extremely dry where Barry has flopped as a writer. The subject is much more relevant in this instance than is the book itself. As this is one of the few books on this subject in print, the book is an important read for a student in environmental history. Hopefully, a more competent writer than Barry will tackle the river in the future so readers can more easily navigate the flood’s history.

The Great Influenza: A Book Review

Some may find it grasping that, nearly ninety years ago, most of the world was overtaken by, what John M. Barry repeatedly refers to as “just influenza.” In his book, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, he provides a detailed background of the pandemic’s “heroes” and “villains,” an explanation of the difficulties in finding a cure due to lack of scientific knowledge and a vivid description of the terror brought on by the disease. Not only does the text provide a history lesson, but it also serves as a warning. Barry intends for his reader to learn from this history in order to better prepare in the event of the disease’s return, which, he clearly states, will eventually occur. He uses strong and dramatic language to convey the harshness of a disease which, in a very short time, killed more people than any other plague.

Barry focuses, primarily, on the people involved in the influenza outbreak. His heroes are not warriors or leaders, but, instead, those scientists who contributed most to medical history in the search for a cause and a cure. Interestingly, Barry initially focuses the reader’s attention on William Henry Welch, which leads one to believe he will be the scientist to solve the case. However, Welch, during his investigation, contracts the virus and is out of service for nearly the entire pandemic. Still, his story is interesting, as it demonstrates how a person with extreme knowledge of the disease was able to take measures in order to his prevent death. Luckily, Barry’s book features an entire cast of scientists to make up for his absence. Oswald Avery is requested by Welch to find the cause of influenza. William Park and Anna Wessel Williams worked towards a vaccine to combat the disease. Paul Lewis, one of the initial scientists to become involved in the investigation, provided his expertise in both of these areas. Barry repeatedly praises these people, providing stark contrast with most public officials whom he portrays negatively in the book. The failings of Army Surgeon General William Gorgas and the head of the US Public Health Service, Rupert Blue, are made clear in their lack of preparations for the pandemic. Additionally, Barry devotes an entire chapter to the contribution of political machines in spreading influenza through Philadelphia. He even blames Woodrow Wilson’s overzealousness in World War I for the spread of the disease. Still, his points are valid. Most of the world was preoccupied with this war in 1918. With an invisible enemy, such as influenza, the importance of preparation is likely overlooked. Gorgas had to follow orders and Blue was steeped in bureaucracy. The officials put into power by the Philadelphia political machine were appropriately qualified to comprehend the gravity of the situation. Also, Wilson had decided to keep most information confidential due to the war, including topics regarding the spread of this deadly disease. Despite this, the blame is placed in their hands. Barry argues that the scientists made clear the capabilities of the influenza but the political administration did not take the disease seriously enough.

By reading The Great Influenza, one walks away with a scientific knowledge which was not held by the scientists working towards a cure. While the fact that influenza is a virus is now widely-known, it was not even seen as a possibility in 1918. Up to that point, diseases were believed to be caused by varieties of bad air, whether through swamp gases or miasmas. While this is helpful in the preventing the contraction of diseases present in the air or in unsanitary conditions, these theories do not assist with diseases contracted through physical contact with the ill, for example. The biggest discovery in medicine came following the acknowledgement of germ theory, which led to the creation of vaccinations. Despite arguably the largest development in medical science, bacterial pathogens were the only known cause of disease at that time. In fact, when Richard Pfeiffer was testing influenza, he was so positive of this that he hastily concluded the disease was caused by a bacteria he named “bacillus influenzae.” Barry’s text demonstrates the necessity of knowing one’s enemy in order to properly combat it. Since they believed influenza was caused by bacteria, scientists worked pointlessly toward creation of an antibiotic to combat the disease. Modern medicine recognizes that antibiotics will not work towards curing diseases brought on by viruses. The unaware scientists worked towards this cure pointlessly, resulting in wasted time and lost lives. The pandemic played out through the fall of 1918 and a protégé of Paul Lewis, Richard Shope, did not prove the disease was caused by a virus until the late 1920s. Still, the pandemic’s gravity pushed for more medicinal research, which led to this discovery, allowing people to now control outbreaks using vaccinations.

Perhaps one of the most striking characteristics of Barry’s book is the overall sense of terror he demonstrates through his storytelling. He makes certain the reader is aware of how horrific the event was. Not only did the influenza leave approximately 100 million people dead, it killed more than any other plague in history. Over the course of a few weeks in 1918, more died from the disease than have fallen victim to the Black Plague or AIDS, both of which had much longer runs. The Great Influenza contains graphic descriptions of the course of the disease, which ripped apart the lungs as one’s immune system attacked its own body. Some suffered such severe cyanosis, or bluing of the skin due to lack of oxygen, that their face turned nearly black, causing the influenza to be mistaken by some as the Black Plague. Blood was everywhere, as it spurted out of all of the body’s membranes, which include noses, ears and eyes. People were not only witnessing a disgusting disease, but they were also constantly confronted with death. Barry tells of a town in which it was customary to place crepe paper over the front door of a home in which someone has recently died. In that town, nearly every door of every home had a piece of crepe paper during the outbreak. In hospitals, doctors would leave work with one batch of people in sickbeds, only to return to their next shift to find almost all of their patients were dead and a new lot of victims were there for treatment. The overflow of sick in hospitals was so bad that medical staff laid sick people next to the beds of the dying, making the new arrivals wait for the person currently in the bed to die so they could be the next one moved onto it. Not only was there a shortage of hospital beds, but a shortage of medical staff. Many doctors and nurses were not present due to their involvement in World War I, but some who stayed home were also lost to the disease itself. One account describes a nurse who came into her shift feeling under the weather and died twelve hours later. Barry tells stories of groups of doctors and nurses who simply dropped dead within minutes of each other while on the job. Since there was a lack of trained medical staff, volunteers were asked for assistance. However, medicine had come far in just a few years. In a testimony given by a medical student volunteering at a hospital, he recounts watching a retired doctor practice bloodletting in order to rid the victim’s bodies of the disease. Not only were the hospitals understaffed and overstuffed, there was not enough space in the morgue to hold all of the deceased. In hospitals, the dead are described as stacked in hallways like corkwood. Those who died at home were left in a corner and covered with a sheet until they could be picked up. In one account, a woman begs to have her child buried in a macaroni box, rather than be taken away wrapped in a sheet, as there was a shortage of coffins at this time. Death was everywhere and Barry does not hold back with gritty descriptions of how terrible it was.

Many are likely to be quick to criticize The Great Influenza for its repetitive language and dramatics, which cause the issue to become sensationalized. However, Barry probably does not do that entirely to sell books. He wants the reader to recognize the severity of the situation in order to be better prepared than those who suffered in 1918. While his passive-aggressive repetition of the phrase “it’s only influenza” gets very annoying, he is urging his reader to take the disease seriously should it arise again. While the language is simple enough, the organization of the book leaves much to be desired. For a disease, which Barry claims to occur overnight, the reader may become confused as he writes regarding minor outbreaks happening before the major event. Once the disease does break out on the major scale, it is not made clear enough to the reader that the pandemic level has been reached. Additionally, he had tendencies to jump from events out of chronological order, which also causes him to be difficult to follow. While it is acceptable for the type of book he is writing, the lump bibliography provided at the end of the book does not provide much assistance to anyone using the book for research. Also, by not documenting his sources through footnotes, Barry loses some credibility, which is vital in writing a text which could easily be labeled as sensationalizing. However, he is successful in making his points. The book’s successes lie more with the subject matter than with John M. Barry’s writing abilities. If another author can write a better text, theirs would be more recommendable.

Changes in the Land: A Book Review

In William Cronon’s Changes in the Land, the environmental impact of American colonization is explored, a subject generally overshadowed by the other events surrounding the beginnings of the country. Within the text, Cronon explores the colonists perceptions of the new land, the manner in which the Native Americans would use this land and the affects of the Colonists land-use. All of these are correlated and, combined, provide a decent “before and after” picture of New England contrasting the land’s condition for thousands of years with its condition after only a few hundred years of European use. In many ways, revolutionary America is vastly different from the America “discovered” by Columbus in 1492, a difference of only 300 years.
The colonists were not the first to encounter America. Europeans had been traveling to the land for over 100 years prior to their arrival and would already change the land greatly. Upon their arrival, the colonists would find the effects of the Columbian Exchange were already in place. The Native Americans were an extremely healthy culture, as their diseases had not been brought down to New England. When crossing the land bridge, the diseases of Eurasia died out within their culture, as they migrated through subarctic conditions in sparse groups. Their lack of domesticated animals would also lead to this lack of disease. While this would assist with survival while on their own, their lack of an immune-system would prove to be monumentally fatal to their culture once they made contact with the Europeans. Mortality rates would reach 80 to 90 percent resulting in epic depopulation. This is the scene the colonists would find. With empty villages scattered throughout the area, the Europeans would come to believe God had essentially set them up for life in the New World, which would provide further fodder to the idea that this is what they were supposed to be doing. However, not all of the natives would die. Those left behind would be desperate, as these diseases would leave them with no food and no government, as most of their tribe would die. The colonists came to America finding empty villages, where the few remaining inhabitants made no use of what appeared to be an abundance of resources. The Europeans had already used up many of their own native resources, so they could not fathom how the Native Americans would not be utilizing them. These would all be signs pointing to God’s providence. Seeing the Europeans doing so well and their own people failing horribly, the Native Americans would be humbled. All of these events set the stage for an easily-obtained colonial dominance, which would allow them to take the land away from the natives.
While the Europeans are easily charged with changing the American environment, Cronon makes much effort to show how the Native Americans are no less guilty of creating change, although it was much less drastic or traumatic to the landscape. While both the northern and southern New England inhabitants would alter their surroundings, those in the south are much more dramatic. The northern Native Americans were hunter-gatherers, while those of the south practiced agriculture. Although this involved extensive planning, the southern tribes would find their food sources to be much more reliable, as they were able to compose their diet of one-half to two-thirds grains, which they would find easily-stored. In turn, the population of southern tribes would be sevenfold that of the north, comprising eighty percent of the total population for that area. In turn, this agriculture would alter the environment. Since the Native Americans would only use a simple hoe for tilling, the soil erosion was minimal. However, the land would lose its fertility eventually and a tribe would just move to another area. In addition, they would introduce fire to the area, which would produce the most noticeable effects. The Native Americans found fire to be an effective and easy manner in which to clear a forest which would involve minimal labor. The people would find hunting and traveling much easier, as there would be clear paths. The nutrients which burnt trees would put back into the soil, along with the new sunlight provided by the lack of obstructing leaves would provide much more shrubbery and grass. Since more light was able to reach the ground, berries and other gatherable foods were able to grow. The burnings would also change the species of trees in an area. With more light, comes drier soil, so oaks would replace the previous moist-favoring beeches, maples and birches. In addition the fires would destroy many bugs and pests for the tribes, along with several plant and tree diseases. Tree-burning was a common practice used to destroy fleas. In doing something so destructive, the natives would actually be doing themselves much good, although it will provide changes in the landscape. Regardless, Cronon is showing how the land which the colonists would encounter was definitely not virginal.
Those who settled in America would continue many of the natives’ practices, but take them to devastating extremes. By 1790, less than 200 years after settlement in Plymouth, efforts would need to begin in order to preserve the land. The arriving Europeans would clear New England’s forests for both agriculture and lumbering. Entire towns would spring up around sawmills and the colonists would come to use wood in building where they would typically have used another resource in acts of excess. Many of the Atlantic and Caribbean islands would be entirely deforested, while white pine and cedars were facing a similar fate. As one could guess, this excessive sunlight would both warm and dry the soil as “forests caused soils as much as soils caused forests” (Cronon 115). The author shows how not only was the soil affected, but nearly every aspect of the forest was unintentionally changed. Temperatures would fluctuate, with hotter summers and warmer winters. The winter would be shortened as the snow would melt faster with the lack of shade once provided through the tree’s leaves. Flooding would show prevalence as the rivers and creeks were able to gather water more easily. In addition, the introduction of domesticated animals in the form of livestock would provide further destruction. Wolves were an encouraged kill as they were viewed as a threat to the precious commodity which was livestock. These grazing animals would spread weeds and trample much of the grass in the areas. One might also note that livestock was so desired that animal crowding was a greater problem than human crowding, which shows how much the Europeans would overrun the land with their practices. Further burning in wooded areas would occur to make room for the animals, which would cause more deterioration in the environment, with the hemlocks taking particularly bad hits. In addition, the colonists insisted on practicing grazing, rather than confining their animals. Had they confined their livestock, the land could have been replenished using the animals’ own manure as a fertilizer. The land would lose its nutrients and, as a result, the colonists would just move to another area. Once they would leave, a different set of plant and tree species would come to dominate the area. The areas abandoned by the colonists would begin to populate with white pine, red cedar, chestnuts and gray birch.
Possibly the most notable aspect of this award-winning book is that, while it was written by a professor, William Cronon was actually a student while writing it and people are still reading it over twenty years later. Rather than showing some sort of immaturity in his writing, Cronon brings a new perspective as well as easily-comprehended writing method. He was an innovator in that he wrote about the difference in the environment prior to and following American colonization. Previously, no one had provided information on the subject, which would leave many to not contemplate this in their retellings of colonial history. The writing style is also very easy to follow as he is generally concise, rarely wordy and uses a comprehendible vocabulary. However, at times, he can appear to be a bit disorganized. Since he covers various topics rather than chronologically, it is difficult to create an image of what New England resembled during a given period. Still it is excusable as he is organizing his book in this manner so as to drive points, rather than paint a picture for the reader. In his effort to prove his thesis, “the replacement of Indians by European populations in New England was as much an ecological as a cultural revolution, and the human side of that revolution cannot be fully understood until it is embedded in the ecological one,” he proves successful (Cronon 6). As far as showing the effects of both the Europeans and the Native Americans on New England ecology, the book does its purpose and is an appropriate read for anyone above a high school reading level. It should be recommended to anyone wishing to easily further their understanding of early American environment.