Changes In The Land William Cronon Summary

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William Cronon chronologically begins with the insight of Henry David Thoreau’s journal as part one. Thoreau vastly expands on his point that the Environment and the human society went through a change from savagery to civilization (qtd. in Cronon 6). In part two Cronon goes on to illustrate how the European settlers weren’t used to the new world and began to bring the English culture to life, in which shipping became a major factor. The English wanted to replace Indians mobility and establish permanent settlements and put this land to good use for profits, despite the first Inhabitants; the Native Americans (Cronon 53). Part three, William expands on two claims, one comparing new England before and after the change, describing it as “sudden…show more content…
Changes In The Land bears heaving evidence as to the ecological transformation as the Europeans began to settle in. I especially agree with Thoreau’s claim of regretting the changes made by these immigrants in the new world (Cronon 15). They could’ve leveled more with the Indians to be patient and respect the many grounds of nature, but with the love of money and their ideal motivation of building a capitalized economy the lands grew weak and barren due to less natural production. The book supports the textbook Experience History: Interpreting America's Past through William Cronon’s thesis. As stated in the Textbook “over the course of the millennia, nearly all the hemisphere’s people found ways to change the natural world in order to improve and enrich their lives”(qtd. in experience history 11), the book mainly overviews the shifting process from causes to effects . Comparing, “activities often mimicked certain ecological processes that occurred in nature, but with a crucial difference… natural ecosystem tended toward a patchwork of diverse communities…” (Cronon 33) and “because of a complex and still poorly understood combination of ecological and social factors, the continent’s most impressive civilizations collapsed…” (qtd. in experience history 15) supporting each other these two quotes both share the idea of different inhabitants arranging communities in a variety of ways but the results weren’t as glorious as the significant change. I did not detect any biases on the author’s part. William Cronon is a Researcher who studies American environmental/ecological history, and basic history of the western region. His purpose in writing Changes In The Land was to create justification of the environments change in the colonial time (Cronon viii). If there were more story broads that consisted of characters, plots, and point of views of actual inhabitants during this time period would’ve improved the book. I did not
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    Changes in the Land, by William Cronon, is a book about the interaction between the Native Americans and the incoming European colonists in the New England territory. Changes in the land doesn’t just talk about the interaction, but specifically how the land and ecology of New England changed as the Europeans arrived and began to settle and also how the Native Americans were forced to change their culture due to the incoming colonists. The book starts off by describing and detailing the way the land

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