Follows three centuries of human efforts to inhabit and control the lower Mississippi River delta, the vast watery flatlands spreading across much of southern Louisiana. Adam Mandelman finds that people's use of technology to tame unruly nature in the region has produced interdependence with - rather than independence from - the environment.

Documents the oil industry's sharp interface with Louisiana's environment. Drawing on government, corporate, and personal files, many previously untapped, John Arnold traces the history of oil-field practices and their ecological impacts in tandem with battles over regulation.

Liz Skilton's innovative study tracks the naming of hurricanes over six decades, exploring the interplay between naming practice and wider American culture. In 1953, the U.S. Weather Bureau adopted female names to identify hurricanes and other tropical storms. Within two years, that convention came into question, and by 1978 a new system was introduced, including alternating male and female names in a pattern that continues today. In Tempest: Hurricane Naming and American Culture, Skilton blends gender studies with environmental history to analyze this often controversial tradition. ...