The Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography

by John R. Wennersten

Part of the problem in dealing with public perceptions about Chesapeake Bay is that people think it will last forever. This obviously is not true. As oceanographer Jerry Schubel has noted, twenty thousand years ago there was no Chesapeake Bay. Since that time, there have been other beginnings and endings of other Chesapeake Bays. As we look to the future, however, we can see that increasingly the transformation of the Chesapeake will be more a...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0938420755
• ISBN13: 9780938420750
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Maryland Historical Society
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Thorough history

Wennersten's history was required reading for an English course I was taking on local landscapes and culture of the Chesapeake Bay, and initially, I had a difficult time getting into this book. The tone seemed overly ponderous and the language a bit stiff. However, as I continued to read, I became impressed with Wennersten's scholarship. He drew together tons of sources, provided a balanced view, and actually supported his own conclusions. The chapter on the oyster wars was particularly enjoyable, and the one on more modern environmental damage very eye-opening. I'm sure my jaw dropped open at least a couple of times. In the end, I donated my copy to the Penn State University library, believing that it should be available to anyone searching for information on the environmental history of the Chesapeake. Not a casual read, definitely, but Wennersten should be proud of what he put together.

Recommended for environmental studies reading lists

The Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography by educator and political history expert John Wennersten is the informed story of the Chesapeake Bay (also called the Crown Jewel of Maryland) and the Mid-Atlantic region. From its ice age origins 20,000 years ago to how its modern-day health reflects directly on the health of waters all over the world, The Chesapeake: An Environmental Biography covers all that human science and history have known about this remarkable body of water. Strongly recommended for environmental studies reading lists and reference collections.

The Survival of the Planet Is not a Special Interest

This book confirms Wennersten's place as a premier authority on the Chesapeake Bay region. Like his earlier books, it renders massive, meticulous scholarship in eminently readable form for the general public. Beginning before the arrival of human beings, his story traces the impact of humans on their habitat and its impact on them from the First Native Americans through the tobacco kingdoms of the colonial period and the systematic exploitation of land and water down to the present day, concluding with hopes (dim though they may be) for the future, in the face of the staggering complexity of technological, political and economic forces. With a significance that goes well beyond its regional focus, the book is far from a sentimental plea for the reclamation of lost forests and dying waterways. Instead, Wennersten presents us with a daunting vision of the kind of rethinking that might help us to resist the continued commodification of nature, and to understand the need to reconsider some or our fundamental values. The fabled independence of the waterman, the vaunted creativity of the entrepreneurial spirit, and the generally unchallenged desirability of infinite economic growth all need to be reexamined. This book is an excellent gift for anyone who wants to begin understanding the processes -- natural, economic, cultural and political -- that could very well put human beings themselves on the endangered species list.