Made From This Earth

“A wide-ranging and ambitious book that, in many ways, makes up for the not-so-benign neglect that natural historians — almost entirely male — have visited on women naturalists. . . . Dense with fact and discursive in approach, Made From This Earth succeeds best by giving an understanding of how both the study of nature and the attitudes toward it are governed by gender.” — Natural History

“A very important contribution to the information available about 'women’s place' in the history of our country.” — Bloomsbury Review

“Norwood has made a significant contribution to the women’s ecology movement, while at the same time providing all those interested in the environment, both men and women, with a richly deserved 'second look' at our environmental history.” — Belles Lettres

“An inventive and wide-ranging work.” — Journal of American History

“A valuable and thoroughly interesting exploration of the relationship of women to the natural environment through the work of nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, illustrators, landscape and garden designers, ornithologists, botanists, biologists, and conservationists.” — Nineteenth-Century Literature

“This book rescues from ignorance and neglect a surprisingly diverse, interesting group of women who have helped shape American thinking about the natural world and encouraged its protection. They came from all walks of life, represented different classes and races, and present us today with a rich array of ideas and feelings about what our relations to animals and plants ought to be. Norwood makes a strong, convincing case that women have long been interested in the natural world, and she raises many important questions about the role of gender in shaping our perception and treatment of the earth.” — Donald E. Worster, University of Kansas

“Demonstrates conclusively that women never were marginal to the American garden and that they have always been central to an ongoing dialogue about relations between humans and the natural world. [Norwood’s] work puts ecofeminist critiques into historical perspective and gives them new authority.” — Annette Kolodny, author of The Lay of the Land and The Land Before Her