New Earth Histories

“New Earth Histories radically resituates the history of earth knowledge in space. Many of the essays center individuals, institutions, and traditions outside of Europe and North America. Just as importantly, other essays ask how a specifically European space mattered for the formation of earth science. The volume also showcases an impressive array of approaches to what constitutes ‘earth sciences.’ Deploying methods from cultural history, visual and material studies, and ethnography, to name only a few examples, New Earth Histories reveals how earth knowledge emerged from historically specific circulations and contestations.” -- Daniel Stolz, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“This book productively pushes the boundaries of how ‘earth knowledge’ might be conventionally understood, in part by centering other-than-Western forms of expertise but also by emphasizing the interconnectedness of geological and biological realms and knowledge, rather than treating these as separate areas of inquiry. The essays demonstrate in wide-ranging and empirically specific ways how historians and other humanities scholars might approach the intersections of human and geological temporalities.” -- Heidi V. Scott, University of Massachusetts Amherst
“The centrality of the ‘Anthopocene’ in recent public discussion of our planetary future has given new prominence to the history of the Earth sciences as a whole. Although scientific understanding of the Earth and its own history—‘geology’ in its traditional sense—developed mainly in the West, its ambitions have always been worldwide. This volume offers an impressive set of historical studies of the amazingly diverse ways in which human beings have sought to understand their terrestrial environment.” -- Martin J. S. Rudwick, University of Cambridge