Brian Donahue (1) (1955–)

In The Great Meadow, Brian Donahue brings a fertile approach to one of the staple narratives in American Colonial history. In bringing together history, geography, digital mapping tools and a farmer’s knowledge of the land, he reinterprets the story of colonial agriculture as told by William Cronon Changes in the Land. Colonial Concord was not a world of scarcity and want, "much less one suffering from pronounced agricultural decline and environmental degradation" (p. 218). His convincing show more evidence suggests that a sustainable and environmentally well adapted system was established over several generations. At the heart of Donahue’s narrative lies a nostalgic vein. In asking why the Great Meadow disappeared, he also asks which knowledge and values we have lost on the way to a modern, capitalist economy. His book is a call for sustainability on a human scale, for slow and long-term solutions. The great strength of Donahue’s book is that he succeeds in weaving men and land together. He manages to show how the environment is intertwined with culture and how you can’t study the one without the other. show less

Remarkable because Donahue's farming experience informs his research and analysis so deeply -- aided by GIS and other useful tools. A great read!