An
Environmental History
of Northeast Florida
by James J. Miller
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Early European descriptions of North America tell about a
landscape and a variety of cultures in northeast Florida--a
region that had been occupied by native people for more than
10,000 years--that were unlike anything the explorers and
settlers had ever encountered. This story of the land and people
in that region of the St. Johns River and the Atlantic coast
covers 18,000 years--from the Ice Age to the first half of the
20th century.
James Miller describes how natural features transformed and how
cultural traditions of native people, as well as Spanish,
English, and American colonists, developed in response to
opportunities and constraints of the environment. With an
unusually broad scope in time, space, and subject matter, he uses
the example of northeast Florida to explore the notion of
environmental equilibrium, to illustrate the fallacy of a
pristine environment, and to show how essential environmental
history is to modern ecological planning.
Fully illustrated with 25 photographs and 40 maps and written in
an accessible style that synthesizes material usually accessible
only to specialists, the book will appeal to general readers and
policy planners as well as experts. No comparable environmental
history of any Florida region exists.
James J. Miller, state archaeologist of Florida
and chief of the Bureau of Archaeological Research, is the
coauthor of An Atlas of Maritime Florida and has
published widely in the fields of cultural resource management
and Florida archaeology.
1998. 240 pp. 6 X 9.
28 b&w photos, 44 maps, 8 tables, bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1600-2
Cloth, $55.00
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"Undoubtedly will be used as a model for future environmental histories."--
Environmental History
"Miller's volume is important for two reasons: 1) it explores historical aspects of the environment, archaeology, culture, geography, and anthropology of a specific region; and 2) that region is northeast Florida -- locus of the first permanent English settlement on this continent." --
Choice
"Given such an unprecedented surge in population over the past eighty years, James J. Miller's book is important because of what it reveals and documents about the rapidly vanishing, yet important, role of natural history in the nation's life. . . . Miller has narratively woven together evidence from archaeological, biological, hydrological, and climatological science, geography, cartography, and traditional historical documents to tell a story of ignorance, avarice, hope, and hard times. . . . His search for a usable past makes this case study of lasting value to naturalists, writers, planners, economists, and environmental historians alike."--
Journal of American History
"Without a doubt a significant contribution to an overall understanding of northeast Florida. . . . Reveals much about land use in the state of Florida and the larger southeast U.S. . . . Frees the reader to consider the human impact [in environmental history] and our relationship to the land. This book makes you think."--Robert L. Thunen, University of North Florida