Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Changes in the Land, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Natural vs. Unnatural Change
Systems and Interdependence
Property Ownership, Commodities, and Profit
Colonization and the Limits of Understanding
Human vs. Environmental History
Summary
Analysis
Changes in the Land is “an ecological history of colonial New England.” In addition to considering the history of human society, the book’s author William Cronon focuses on the natural landscape and nonhuman inhabitants of New England during this time period. His main argument is that the colonization of the New England area significantly changed the natural landscape, an issue that is rarely discussed in historical accounts. Focusing on natural history in this manner in turn illuminates much about human history. The book examines how the ecosystems of precolonial New England differed from those of the European colonizers. It also contrasts the very different beliefs about property ownership held by the respective groups.
This introductory passage lays out the book’s purpose: to illustrate the ecological history that often gets left out of narratives of colonial America. Note that prior to the publication of Changes in the Land, environmental history was uncommon in academia. Shifting history’s focus to include the natural world in this way thus had a revolutionary impact on the discipline of history.
Themes
Neither the colonizers nor the Native people of New England maintained a fixed, static way of being during the period covered by the book (1620-1800)—significant changes took place within that period, too. Changes in the Land is an interdisciplinary project and bringing together several very different disciplines can be a risky endeavor. Cronon thanks the professors who helped him with the project, which began as a seminar paper he wrote during graduate school. He also credits the resources at Yale University, including many different libraries, which he used to conduct his research. He thanks colleagues, friends, and his wife for their support in completing the project.
Changes in the Land is an extraordinarily influential book and the fact that it began in the humble form of a graduate school seminar paper is striking. The fact that environmental and human history are intimately interconnected might seem obvious, but highlighting this connection in the way Cronon does was actually rare.
Themes
