California sometimes seems to play in its own league,
its affairs completely separate from the rest of the West. But the
lively new collection, Green Versus Gold: Sources in California’s
Environmental History, shows how universal California’s lessons
are.
Editor Carolyn Merchant dips into every
phase of California’s history, from before Europeans arrived,
through Spanish colonization, the gold rush, and into the current
period of sophisticated environmentalism. For each era she pairs
first-hand accounts (-A Lumberman on Board-Feet Profits’ and “Irene
Diamond and Gloria Orenstein on the Emergence of Ecofeminism’) with
contemporary essays by scientists and
historians.
Early chapters show that resistance
to resource exploitation is older than readers might guess. For
example, farmers in the late 19th century worked to stop the
hydraulic gold mining that was polluting their water.
Environmentalists don’t become important enough to get their own
chapter until the end of the book, which covers the last 30 years.
Merchant’s sympathies lie with the land’s defenders, yet her scope
is broad and fair enough that the book is useful history even as it
provides inspiration for activists.
*Gabriel
Ross
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Green versus gold.
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