Through lively; engaging narrative; Understories demonstrates how volatile politics of race; class; and nation animate the notoriously violent struggles over forests in the southwestern United States. Rather than reproduce traditional understandings of nature and environment; Jake Kosek shifts the focus toward material and symbolic “natures;†seemingly unchangeable essences central to formations of race; class; and nation that are being remade not just through conflicts over resources but also through everyday practices by Chicano activists; white environmentalists; and state officials as well as nuclear scientists; heroin addicts; and health workers. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork and extensive archival research; he shows how these contentious natures are integral both to environmental politics and the formation of racialized citizens; politicized landscapes; and modern regimes of rule.Kosek traces the histories of forest extraction and labor exploitation in northern New Mexico; where Hispano residents have forged passionate attachments to place. He describes how their sentiments of dispossession emerged through land tenure systems and federal management programs that remade forest landscapes as exclusionary sites of national and racial purity. Fusing fine-grained ethnography with insights gleaned from cultural studies and science studies; Kosek shows how the nationally beloved Smokey the Bear became a symbol of white racist colonialism for many Hispanos in the region; while Los Alamos National Laboratory; at once revered and reviled; remade regional ecologies and economies. Understories offers an innovative vision of environmental politics; one that challenges scholars as well as activists to radically rework their understandings of relations between nature; justice; and identity.
#1906691 in Books 2009-11-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.25 x 1.00 x 5.50l; .85 #File Name: 0821417320296 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Solid collection of primary sources that are useful for researching Missouri's Civil War historyBy gloine36Studying history leads historians to the actual documents and artifacts that were either written; created; or used in the time period being studied. For the Civil War; historians are blessed with a plethora of written documents. This book by Silvana Siddali is a collection of those documents that deal with the American Civil War here in the State of Missouri. Siddali is an assistant professor of history at Saint Louis University and author of From Property to Person: Slavery and the Confiscation Act; 1861-1862. This is great resource for use in the classroom. While the use of digital media is perfectly acceptable in the Information Age; it helps for students to have the documents in an easily accessible location. My experience teaching has shown me that many students will do almost anything to avoid actually reading the documents. Documents are important for historians to work with. Many people do not understand how historians develop their interpretations. One of the goals I have in my classroom is to use primary source documents so that students can see the actual words of the people of the past; and not just the interpretations of historians. This way students can use the documents to consider why the people of the past acted in the way they did. This book is a good resource for that purpose. I have found this to be a quite useful tool for my own research as well. It is definitely not the sum total of all documents dealing with the subject. No book could hold them all. Yet; it is a worthy cross-section of the documents. Siddali begins with the issue of slavery which dominated the politics of the era and drove the conflict between Americans that would later result in the Civil War. From there she explores the division of the state’s peoples which is a fascinating subject of its own. I find that too many people focus on the battles or guerrillas instead of the people themselves. The actions of the people would be the ultimate deciding factor for which side would control the state. That leads to documents that explore how civilians saw the conflict. My current research is in this area as it applies to Northeast Missouri. That is an area that has seen little research; but is interesting in its own right. Siddali focused on the state wide view which is understandable. No area of the state was exactly like another area. Everyone differed which is perfectly normal for people to do; just see modern Missouri today. Students often realize this after studying documents and it helps to expand their knowledge and understanding of why things happened in the manner which they did. I like the book and the documents. I don’t see any serious flaws with it. Siddali used very good sources. The only drawback I see with it would be to have included more individual correspondence such as letters from civilians although the book does have a good selection of it. All in all; I am happy with the book and will be using it when I develop a course on Missouri in the Civil War. I used this book in Dr. Jeremy Neely’s course on Coursera; Missouri’s Civil War and found it useful in that. So; if you are studying Missouri and the Civil War; this is definitely a book you should consider getting.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This book was a perfectBy Linda L. StovallI finished up an online course on Missouri's war and Bloody Kansas. This book was a perfect companion0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Missouri's WarBy ACPackaged well - great book; love anything history!
