This innovative book provides a dynamic--and often surprising--view of the range of environmental issues facing the United States today. A distinguished group of scholars explores the growing temporal, spatial, and thematic breadth of topics historical geographers are now exploring, giving a fascinating look at our changing relationship with nature.

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is an internationally known feature of the North American landscape, attracting more than five million visitors each year. A deep cultural, visual, and social history has shaped the Grand Canyon’s environment into one of America’s most significant representations of nature. Yet the canyon is more than a vacation destination, a movie backdrop, or a scenic viewpoint; it is a real place as well as an abstraction easily summoned in the minds of Americans. The Grand Canyon, or the idea of it, is woven into the fabric of American cultural identity and...