This Is A New Release Of The Original 1864 Edition.

A convenient, one-volume edition of the seminal conservation writings of George Perkins Marsh, annotated in the context of modern conservation thinking.

Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, first published in 1864, was written by American scholar, George Perkins Marsh. Marsh intended it to show that "whereas [others] think the earth made man, man in fact made the earth". As a result, he warned that man could destroy himself and the Earth if we don't restore and sustain global resources and raise awareness about our actions. It is one of the first works to document the effects of human action on the environment and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement. Marsh argued that ancient Mediterranean civilizations collapsed through environmental degradation. Deforestation led to eroded soils that led to decreased soil productivity. Additionally, the same trends could be found occurring in the United States.