University of Calgary PressCanadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies

An Environmental History of Latin America by Shawn William MillerReview by: Rachel O'DonnellCanadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des étudeslatino-américaines et caraïbes, Vol. 33, No. 66, Special Issue: The Nation in Question in theLiteratures, Cinema, and Art of Latin America and the Caribbean / Numéro spécial: La nationen question dans les littératures, le cinéma et l'art en Amérique latine et les Caraïbes (2008),pp. 210-211Published by: University of Calgary Press on behalf of Canadian Association of Latin American andCaribbean StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41800584 .

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210 CJLACS / RCELAC 33/66 2008

Shawn William Miller An Environmental History of Latin America Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, xi + 257 pp.

Rachel O 'Donnei!, York University

In this appropriately titled volume, Shawn William Miller offers both an environmental histoiy of Latin America that fully explores the relationship between nature and culture and a thorough interpretation of how the natural world both shaped and was shaped by the historical transformation of the Americas. A broad conception of terms such as "nature" and "environ- ment" allows Miller to carve out an engaging historical picture that begins at the time of pre-Columbian civilizations and takes us through to today's ongoing urbanization. Throughout the work, the role nature has played in

shaping the history and development of Latin America is detailed. Instead of assuming humanity's predominant role in the region, Miller places Latin America's natures and cultures together at the centre of his analysis. He thus constructs a rich and nuanced account of Latin America's natural history over the last six centuries, including an examination of the natural world of ancient civilizations, contemporary environmental destruction, biodiversity loss, and food scarcity.

One of Miller's early and most fascinating reflections is contained in the explanation of the relationship between Latin American nature and Eu-

ropean conquerors and settlers (9). As Miller argues, the "Pristine myth" - a vision of the continent that European settlement in the Americas helped to

perpetuate - was most prevalent in the late 1 500s when settlers encountered

grasslands that had previously been forest (57). The natural world itself assisted in perpetuating this myth, since much of the destruction of Latin America's indigenous inhabitants happened a century before the arrival of

large numbers of European settlers, who thus came to claim as theirs the vast and "empty" space that had attracted them to the region. Indeed, 90% of the indigenous population was slaughtered in the century after 1492, and the majority of European settlers began to arrive after the turn of the 17th

century. By this time, when the number of indigenous inhabitants in the re-

gion had fallen drastically, the natural world they had known had managed to at least partially restore itself. Thus, what settlers found upon their arrival was, in fact, something similar to the empty Eden they had envisioned and

expected. Miller's book is also a comprehensive picture of the transformations in

the Latin American landscape as brought on by monoculture. He details the roles specific commodities played in such transformations, and he reflects

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Reviews / Recensions 211

on the historical role that the development of natural resources - coffee, rubber, sugar, corn, guano - have had. Miller highlights the impact of colo- nial production on land distribution and the development of agriculture, as well as the ongoing importance of land and its relationship to indigenous survival.

A later chapter on Tropical Determinism provides a broad overview of the role race and environment have historically played in the emergence of myths as well as in the development of theories connecting "the tropics" with Latin American natures and cultures. Many of the conclusions offered in the book are placed nicely in a global context, including remarkable statistics about the urban expansion of Latin American cities, the rise of environmentalism and its limits, and contemporary tourism and its effects on both nature and culture.

The book is clearly positioned in the field of environmental history, an increasingly significant body of contemporary scholarship developed over the past few decades. The author adopts a selective approach to the subject, offering both breadth and depth, particularly as he establishes fundamental links between environmental history and other fields within history, as well as other disciplines, such as geography. Finally, Miller addresses the key relationship between Latin American environmental history and political and social theory. In so doing, he also contributes in vital ways to the es- tablishment of environmental history as an essential field of knowledge. In fact, Miller's work and the field of environmental history have a lot to offer to a variety of disciplines.

As Miller writes early on in the text, history has often been written as if nature had no role to play in it, as though it were a series of cultural events that passed independently of nature (2). Alternatively, he presents many of the views about nature that American civilizations have held and that are in clear contrast to European and Christian tradition. Miller interweaves such understandings with historical episodes of Latin America's environmental past in a rich canvas where it becomes possible for him to reinsert nature into history, providing not only a history of the endurance of the human species but also a history of the natural world and what is at stake in its survival.

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