A Major History of Early Americans’ Ideas about Conservation

Fifty years after the Revolution, American farmers faced a crisis: the failing soils of the Atlantic states threatened the agricultural prosperity upon which the republic was founded. Larding the Lean Earth explores the tempestuous debates that erupted between “improvers,” intent on sustaining the soil of existing farms, and “emigrants,” who thought it wiser and more “American” to move westward as the soil gave out. Larding the Lean Earth is a signal work of environmental history and an original contribution to the study of antebellum America.

“[An] eye-opening and rousing chronicle of American agriculture and its industrialization.” —Booklist

“An engaging examination of the early proponents of restorative husbandry.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Evocative and provocative, written with verve and passion and with new insights on every page, this is a book that every nineteenth-century historian will want to read.” —Daniel Feller, University of New Mexico

“[A] valuable act of reclamation.” —Bill Kauffman, The Wall Street Journal