Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 -

One does not often come across a book that is so radical on its surface and so reasonable in its deeper arguments. In Dust Bowls of Empire, Holleman (sociology, Amherst College) provides a revisioning of an iconic period in US history, a period that for many years has been presented as exceptional to the US. To be clear, other researchers laid the ground for Holleman by putting the Dust Bowl in a comparative context both environmental and social. But Holleman synthesizes and extends what has come before by situating US environmental crises in a larger economic system that has enveloped much of the world. She does not use the term empire in her title lightly. She understands that crises such as the Dust Bowl and climate change are fundamentally connected to governance and markets on a cross-national scale. Her use of historical documents is skillful, and she undergirds her work with linkages to a broad range of scholarship. In sum, Holleman reminds readers that history can speak very directly and can remind one that those who came, and suffered, before can speak to specific present concerns. History roots out what matters.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

This interesting book represents new directions in Amish Studies. Anthropologist McConnell and biologist Loveless (both, College of Wooster) have produced a work that is historically informed, creatively and thoroughly researched, and theoretically sophisticated. They complicate the media and popular image of the Amish as models of environmental sustainability, who live close to nature as stewards of land and resources. At the least, there is much variation among the many Amish locations and affiliations. Another foundational point is the biblical concept that the earth was created for human use, which can contradict preservationist ideals if not always the conservationist side; in other words, the Amish perspective toward the environment may resemble Pinchot's more than Muir's. The authors conducted over 150 interviews of Amish, former Amish, and non-Amish individuals; Amish interviewees represent 35 settlements and 15 affiliations across 12 states--all impressive numbers. Their work is an important corrective to simplistic notions of Amish natural life, which can seem similar to popular views of Native Americans. Using core concepts from political ecology, the authors show how economic pragmatism and cultural worldviews sometimes contradict ecological goals of biodiversity and sustainability. This reviewer looks forward to more studies like this one.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.