Nature in Los Angeles

The following email appeared on the environmental history listserv on H-NET. The article by Jenny Price is pretty good and apparently is an excerpt from her 2005 environmental history of Los Angeles.

To: H-ENVIRONMENT@H-NET.MSU.EDU

From: Ben Johnson
Date: 25 April 2006
Subject: Price piece on cities and Nature

Fellow H-Enviros:

Wanted to call everybody's attention to a compelling (and entertaining) piece by Jennifer Price, author of Flight Maps, in the new issue of the Believer, complete with handsome photographs by Stephen Smith. Price's questioning of what we mean by nature, and her trenchant critique of nature writing, will be of interest to all environmental historians, even those who don't share her knowledge or fascination with Los Angeles, whose history and culture serve as the point of departure for her wider arguments.

Coming off of the annual meeting, this is a particularly timely piece. Environmental historians, it seems to me, do an excellent job of interdisciplinary work with field scientists and public lands managers. But we largely neglect cultural history (as confirmed by a quick look at the program for the St. Paul meeting), and in so doing, I think sharply limit our ability to convince the rest of the profession of the centrality of environmental questions. This piece suggests how we might effectively bring cultural questions to the heart of our work.

Here's the link:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200604/?read=article_price

jt