Hamilton, Brian. “J. Browning and T. Silver, ‘An Environmental History of the Civil War.’” New Books in Environmental Studies, August 6, 2020. Mp3, 59:37.
This sweeping new history recognizes that the Civil War was not just a military conflict but also a moment of profound transformation in Americans’ relationship to the natural world.
To be sure, environmental factors such as topography and weather powerfully shaped the outcomes of battles and campaigns, and the war could not have been fought without the horses, cattle, and other animals that were essential to both armies. But in An Environmental History of the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), Judkin Browning and Timothy Silver weave a far richer story, combining military and environmental history to forge a comprehensive new narrative of the war’s significance and impact.
As they reveal, the conflict created a new disease environment by fostering the spread of microbes among vulnerable soldiers, civilians, and animals; led to large-scale modifications of the landscape across several states; sparked new thinking about the human relationship to the natural world; and demanded a reckoning with disability and death on an ecological scale. (Source: New Books Network)
In this episode of New Books in Environmental Studies, Brian Hamilton interviews historians Judkin Browning and Timothy Silver, authors of An Environmental History of the Civil War.
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