American perceptions of immigrant and invasive species : strangers on the land / Peter A. Coates.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coates, Peter A., 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Introduced organisms--United States--History.

Introduced organisms.

Biology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 p.)

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Sometimes 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 1850's, 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:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Strangers and Natives

2. The Avian Conquest of a Continent

3. Plants, Insects, and Other Strangers to the Soil

4. Arboreal Immigrants

5. The Nature of Alien Nation

NOTES

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612759505

9781282759503

1282759507

9780520933255

0520933257

9781433700033

1433700034

OCLC:

437175178