Man and Nature

Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, first published in 1864, was written by American polymath scholar and diplomat George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882).^[1] Marsh intended his text to show that "whereas think the earth made man, man in fact made the earth".^[2] He warned that humans could destroy themselves and the Earth if they failed to restore and sustain global resources and to raise awareness about human actions. The book is one of the earliest works to document the effects of human action on the environment, and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement.

Marsh is remembered by scholars as a profound and observant student of men, books and nature, with a wide range of interests ranging from history to poetry and literature. His wide array of knowledge and great natural powers of mind gave him the ability to speak and write about every topic of inquiry with the assertive authority of a genuine investigator. He initially got the idea for "Man and Nature" from his observations in his New England home and his foreign travels devoted to similar inquiries.^[3] Marsh wrote the book in line with the view that human life and action is a transformative phenomenon, especially in relation to nature, and due to personal economic interests. He felt that men were too quick to lessen their sense of responsibility and he was "unwilling to leave the world worse than he found it".^[4]

The book challenges the myth of the inexhaustibility of the earth and the belief that human impact on the environment is negligible by drawing similarities to the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean.^[5] Marsh argued that ancient Mediterranean civilizations collapsed through environmental degradation. Deforestation led to eroded soils that led to decreased soil-productivity. Additionally, the same trends could be found occurring in the United States. The book was one of the most influential books of its time, next to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species of 1859, inspiring conservation and reform in the USA since it documented what happened to an ancient civilisation when it depleted and exhausted its natural resources.^[6] The book was instrumental in the designation of Adirondack Park in New York in 1892 and in the development of the United States National Forest from 1891 onwards. Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the United States Forest Service, called the work "epoch making" and Stewart Udall wrote that it was "the beginning of land wisdom in this country".

The book is divided into six chapters.

• Introductory
• Transfer, Modification, and Extirpation of Vegetable and of Animal Species
• The Woods
• The Waters
• The Sands
• Projected or Possible Geographical Changes by Man

• Anthropocene
• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

• Rutkow, Eric (2012). American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation. New York: Scribner. pp. 93–98. ISBN 978-1-4391-9354-9.

• Man and Nature at Internet Archive (digital editions)