Login
Create Account
Canadian Store (CAD)
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars.
 |
Time and a PlaceAn Environmental History of Prince Edward Island |
eBook Available
Canada’s first province-based environmental history tracks changes from the Ice Age to the Information Age.
With its long and well-documented history, Prince Edward Island makes a compelling case study for thousands of years of human interaction with a specific ecosystem. The pastoral landscapes, red sandstone cliffs, and small fishing villages of Canada’s “garden province” are appealing because they appear timeless, but they are as culturally constructed as they are shaped by the ebb and flow of the tides.
Bringing together experts from a multitude of disciplines, the essays in Time and a Place explore the island’s marine and terrestrial environment from its prehistory to its recent past. Beginning with PEI’s history as a blank slate - a land scraped by ice and then surrounded by rising seas - this mosaic of essays documents the arrival of flora, fauna, and humans, and the different ways these inhabitants have lived in this place over time. The collection offers policy insights for the province while also informing broader questions about the value of islands and other geographically bounded spaces for the study of environmental history and the crafting of global sustainability.
Putting PEI at the forefront of Canadian environmental history, Time and a Place is a remarkable accomplishment that will be eagerly received and read by historians, geographers, scholars of Canadian and island studies, and environmentalists.
Bringing together experts from a multitude of disciplines, the essays in Time and a Place explore the island’s marine and terrestrial environment from its prehistory to its recent past. Beginning with PEI’s history as a blank slate - a land scraped by ice and then surrounded by rising seas - this mosaic of essays documents the arrival of flora, fauna, and humans, and the different ways these inhabitants have lived in this place over time. The collection offers policy insights for the province while also informing broader questions about the value of islands and other geographically bounded spaces for the study of environmental history and the crafting of global sustainability.
Putting PEI at the forefront of Canadian environmental history, Time and a Place is a remarkable accomplishment that will be eagerly received and read by historians, geographers, scholars of Canadian and island studies, and environmentalists.
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen's Rural, Wildland, and Resource Studies Series (number 5 in series)
460 Pages, 6 x 9
60 images
ISBN 9780773546936
July 2016
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
“The chapters complement and build on each other, giving a surprisingly comprehensive view of PEI environmental history over the longue durée. Time and a Place will undoubtedly put PEI on the map of Canadian environmental history, and will be used as a model for other regions that as yet have nothing of the kind to compare with it.” Matthew Hatvany, Université Laval
“A thoroughly researched collection that has much to offer those interested in the history of Prince Edward Island and its environment.” Atlantic Books Today
“This book could serve as a template for what an environmental history should be … a complex interweaving of biophysicality, humankind, ideas and technologies. There is an understanding that detailed, place-specific environmental histories nest within deep time and continent-wide accounts, providing rich-or ‘thick’-understandings of specific elements within the general. The book synthesises these complexities superbly well. I strongly recommend this book, and to all island scholars, not just Prince Edward Islanders. It is superb; meticulous and readable scholarship.” Island Studies Journal
“The unique circumstances of island life - the interface of land and water, the challenge of limited resources, the premium of innovation, the tradition of make-do individualism, the overriding sense of place - make for a new approach to the field of environmental history and historical geography. These essays will be read widely, not only by Atlantic Canadians but by all those interested in these two fields.” Journal of Historical Geography
“A thoroughly researched collection that has much to offer those interested in the history of Prince Edward Island and its environment.” Atlantic Books Today
“This book could serve as a template for what an environmental history should be … a complex interweaving of biophysicality, humankind, ideas and technologies. There is an understanding that detailed, place-specific environmental histories nest within deep time and continent-wide accounts, providing rich-or ‘thick’-understandings of specific elements within the general. The book synthesises these complexities superbly well. I strongly recommend this book, and to all island scholars, not just Prince Edward Islanders. It is superb; meticulous and readable scholarship.” Island Studies Journal
“The unique circumstances of island life - the interface of land and water, the challenge of limited resources, the premium of innovation, the tradition of make-do individualism, the overriding sense of place - make for a new approach to the field of environmental history and historical geography. These essays will be read widely, not only by Atlantic Canadians but by all those interested in these two fields.” Journal of Historical Geography
Edward MacDonald is associate professor of Canadian and Prince Edward Island history at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Joshua MacFadyen is assistant professor of environmental humanities at Arizona State University.
Irené Novaczek is the former director of the Institute of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Joshua MacFadyen is assistant professor of environmental humanities at Arizona State University.
Irené Novaczek is the former director of the Institute of Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Figures and Tables xi
Introduction: Promise and Premise: An Environmental History
for Prince Edward Island 3
Edward MacDonald, Joshua MacFadyen, and Irené Novaczek
I IMAGINING ISLANDS: ISLANDS AND ENVIRONMENTAL
HISTORY
1 Muddying the Waters of Environmental History: Islands
as Ecotones 19
John R. Gillis
2 Museums, Laboratories, Showcases: Prince Edward and Other
Islands in Environmental History 36
Graeme Wynn
II SHAPING ABEGWEIT: PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL
HISTORY
3 The Palaeo-Environment and the Peopling of Prince Edward Island:
An Archaeological Perspective 59
David Keenlyside and Helen Kristmanson
4 The Forests of Prince Edward Island, 1720-1900 82
Douglas Sobey
5 Wildlife Matters: A Historical Overview of Public Consciousness
of Habitat and Wildlife Loss on Prince Edward Island 109
Rosemary Curley
6 The Mermaid’s Tresses: Seaplants in the Culture and Economy
of Prince Edward Island 140
Irené Novaczek
III HARVESTING LAND AND SEA: DEVELOPMENT
AND THE ENVIRONMENT ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
7 The Fertile Crescent: Agricultural Land Use on Prince Edward
Island, 1861-1971 161
Joshua MacFadyen
8 Agriculture and the Environment on Prince Edward Island, 1969-
2014: An Uneasy Relationship 195
Jean-Paul Arsenault
9 Lines in the Water: Time and Place in a Fishery 218
Edward MacDonald and Boyde Beck
10 The Landscapes of Tourism: Scenic Images in Prince Edward Island
Tourism Literature 246
Alan MacEachern
11 Two Centuries of Energy on Prince Edward Island 264
Kathleen Stuart
Epilogue: Lessons of Time, Place, and an Island 288
Claire Campbell
Appendix: Laying Down the Laws: Environment-Related
Legislation on Prince Edward Island, 1770-1970 301
Colin MacIntyre
Notes 309
Bibliography 369
Contributors 415
Index 421
Acknowledgments ix
Figures and Tables xi
Introduction: Promise and Premise: An Environmental History
for Prince Edward Island 3
Edward MacDonald, Joshua MacFadyen, and Irené Novaczek
I IMAGINING ISLANDS: ISLANDS AND ENVIRONMENTAL
HISTORY
1 Muddying the Waters of Environmental History: Islands
as Ecotones 19
John R. Gillis
2 Museums, Laboratories, Showcases: Prince Edward and Other
Islands in Environmental History 36
Graeme Wynn
II SHAPING ABEGWEIT: PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL
HISTORY
3 The Palaeo-Environment and the Peopling of Prince Edward Island:
An Archaeological Perspective 59
David Keenlyside and Helen Kristmanson
4 The Forests of Prince Edward Island, 1720-1900 82
Douglas Sobey
5 Wildlife Matters: A Historical Overview of Public Consciousness
of Habitat and Wildlife Loss on Prince Edward Island 109
Rosemary Curley
6 The Mermaid’s Tresses: Seaplants in the Culture and Economy
of Prince Edward Island 140
Irené Novaczek
III HARVESTING LAND AND SEA: DEVELOPMENT
AND THE ENVIRONMENT ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
7 The Fertile Crescent: Agricultural Land Use on Prince Edward
Island, 1861-1971 161
Joshua MacFadyen
8 Agriculture and the Environment on Prince Edward Island, 1969-
2014: An Uneasy Relationship 195
Jean-Paul Arsenault
9 Lines in the Water: Time and Place in a Fishery 218
Edward MacDonald and Boyde Beck
10 The Landscapes of Tourism: Scenic Images in Prince Edward Island
Tourism Literature 246
Alan MacEachern
11 Two Centuries of Energy on Prince Edward Island 264
Kathleen Stuart
Epilogue: Lessons of Time, Place, and an Island 288
Claire Campbell
Appendix: Laying Down the Laws: Environment-Related
Legislation on Prince Edward Island, 1770-1970 301
Colin MacIntyre
Notes 309
Bibliography 369
Contributors 415
Index 421
