American Perceptions of Immigrant and Invasive Species: Strangers on the LandSometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose, humans have transported plants and animals to new habitats around the world. Arriving in ever-increasing numbers to American soil, recent invaders have competed with, preyed on, hybridized with, and carried diseases to native species, transforming our ecosystems and creating anxiety among environmentalists and the general public. But is American anxiety over this crisis of ecological identity a recent phenomenon? Charting shifting attitudes to alien species since the 1850s, Peter Coates brings to light the rich cultural and historical aspects of this story by situating the history of immigrant flora and fauna within the wider context of human immigration. Through an illuminating series of particular invasions, including the English sparrow and the eucalyptus tree, what he finds is that we have always perceived plants and animals in relation to ourselves and the polities to which we belong. Setting the saga of human relations with the environment in the broad context of scientific, social, and cultural history, this thought-provoking book demonstrates how profoundly notions of nationality and debates over race and immigration have shaped American understandings of the natural world. |
Contents
1 | |
2 The Avian Conquest of a Continent | 28 |
3 Plants Insects and Other Strangers to the Soil | 71 |
4 Arboreal Immigrants | 112 |
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Common terms and phrases
accessed April 16 Agriculture ailanthus Alien Species Angel Island April 16 areas arrived Asa Gray Australian avian Biological Invasions biotic bird's blue gum botanical botanist British California cattle egret CDPR century City conservation cosmopolitan Coues crops cultural David debate early ecological economic English sparrow Environment Environmental eucalyptus European European Starling exotic species explained Fairchild flora and fauna foreign plants Galloway Garden and Forest gum tree Higham History Hornaday horticultural House Sparrow human immigrants immi immigrants impact indigenous insects introduced species invaders invasive species Japanese John Journal July land landscape London Madison Grant Marlatt menace metaphors Meyer National Park native birds native plants native species nature nonhuman nonnative species North America numbers origins Plant Immigrants Plant Introduction population quarantine Quoted race racial recent redwood reference scientific seeds Sierra Club southern starling Strangers Susan Fenimore Cooper tion Tortilla Curtain tree's United University Press Washington weeds wild wildlife William York