Mockingbird Song

“Kirby uses a multidisciplinary approach employing information . . . from such diverse fields as agronomy, archaeology, geology, sociology, and even literature to enhance his rich knowledge of southern history in order to enlighten readers about these important, relevant issues. Highly recommended.” — CHOICE

“[A] brilliant exploration of plants, animals, and people. . . . Mockingird Song has a rousing vitality that makes it destined to be a classic work of environmental history.” — Journal of Southern History

“A grand synthesis with perfect timing. It summarizes, appreciates, and expands on the recent bloom of scholarship that looks at the unique environmental history of the American South.” — Journal of American History

“Not only represents a commendable distillation of decades of scholarship but introduces important new topics and approaches for the maturing field of southern environmental history.” — American Historical Review

“Makes many of the central themes of current scholarship in the field accessible to a general readership. . . . An amiable, entertaining, and pleasantly unpredictable guide to the South.” — Canadian Journal of History

“Kirby’s imaginative, interdisciplinary book is a passionate recounting of the centuries-old relationship between the human and nature in the South” — Rocky Mount Telegram

“A personal and passionate recounting of the human-nature relationship in the South is offered as a narrative that explores all of the South’s peoples and their landscapes and also relates what southerners have thought about their part of the earth” — Forecast

“Though Mockingbird Song is set in the South, it is about more than the South. . . . Kirby reflects profoundly on the relationships of Americans — and of humankind — to the natural world. . . . An original in the growing field of environmental history, elegantly conceived and beautifully written.” — Bancroft Prize Committee

“A fast-paced, quirky and sometimes inspired romp through topics that are at times only loosely connected but are always interesting.” — Southern Cultures

“Kirby is one of our most distinguished historians of the American South, and his new book is an altogether original one, beautifully crafted, superbly written, and of timely interest. . . . [Mockingbird’s Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South] is a significant scholarly work, but also a great read.” — Southern Register