Before The Wilderness
For your edification and pleasure, please check out the latest title in the W.I.S.E. Library:
Blackburn, Thomas C. and Kat Anderson, eds. Before The Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians. 1993. Malki Press - Ballena Press [here]
Before the Wilderness is one of the best and most important works ever published in the field of Western landscape natural/cultural history.
The title is not a joke. Wilderness is a modern concept. Before Euro-American mythical glosses and ugh! racist and destructive laws were enacted to codify “wilderness,” the land was home to people and animals. Wilderness is a myth. This book is a fascinating and scholarly exploration of the facts.
What else is there to say? A must read.
