Department Faculty

I am an environmental historian, and my research focuses on the environmental history of the United States.  My first book, which won the OAH’s Frederick Jackson Turner award, explored the relationship between the growth of suburbia after 1945 and the rise of the environmental movement.  I also have written about the relationship between the environmental movement and the political, social, and cultural developments of the 1960s.  I now am working on two book projects.  One is a history of Earth Day 1970, the largest demonstration in American history.  The other is a study of environmental reform in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era – the period when Americans first tried to stop pollution, conserve natural resources, and preserve wild places and wild creatures.  In all my work, I have joined environmental history with political, social, and cultural history.  From 2002 through 2005, I edited Environmental History, the leading journal in the field.