Down to Earth

Today’s youth learn in their high school history classes that it is the actions of man, not nature, that has determined history, and consequently this is what textbooks have put a premium on. Everything else, such as geography, is delegated to a lower rank of importance, unless it directly affected man’s actions. Down to Earth, by Ted Steinberg, seeks to change this. He strives to do this by putting more emphasis on nature and geography then the actions of man.. But before the book can be judged whether or not it is adequate to be put on the required reading list for next year, we must first look at the major themes that Steinberg continually delves on. The most important are the European’s commoditization of nature and the specialization of the environment (monoculture).
If the cultures of the Native Americans and Europeans could be differentiated by a single thing, it would be by the European’s commoditization of nature. To the Indians, nature was something to be...