- Sign In
- Help
-
My Basket0
Your basket is empty.
Pharsalia: An Environmental Biography of a Southern Plantation, 1780-1880 (Hardback)
Lynn A. Nelson (author)
£44.95
Hardback
288 Pages /
Published: 28/02/2007
- We can order this
Pharsalia, a plantation located in piedmont Virginia at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is one of the best-documented sites of its kind. Drawing on the exceptionally rich trove of papers left behind by the Massie family, Pharsalia's owners, this case study demonstrates how white southern planters paradoxically relied on capitalistic methods even as they pursued an ideal of agrarian independence. Lynn A. Nelson also shows how the contradictions between these ends and means would later manifest themselves in the southern conservation movement. Nelson follows the fortunes of Pharsalia's owners, telling how Virginia's traditional extensive agriculture contributed to the soil's erosion and exhaustion. Subsequent attempts to balance independence and sustainability through a complex system of crop rotation and resource recycling ultimately gave way to an intensive, slave-based form of agricultural capitalism. Pharsalia could not support the Massies' aristocratic ambitions, and it was eventually parceled up and sold off by family members. The farm's story embodies several fundamentals of modern U.S. environmental thought. Southerners' nineteenth-century quest for financial and ecological independence provided the background for conservationists' attempts to save family farming. At the same time, farmers' failure to achieve independence while maximizing profits and crop yields drove them to seek government aid and regulation. These became some of the hallmarks of conservation efforts in the New Deal and beyond. 37
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820326276
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 630 g
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 27 mm
You may also be interested in...
Added to basket
£22.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£39.95
Paperback
Added to basket
£12.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£30.00
Hardback
Added to basket
£15.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£8.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£15.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£7.99
£6.49
Paperback
Added to basket
£12.00
Paperback
Added to basket
£19.99
Hardback
Added to basket
£14.99
£11.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£9.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£22.99
Hardback
Added to basket
£7.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£8.99
Paperback
Added to basket
£20.00
Hardback
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In
Sign In
Click & Collect
Simply reserve online and pay at the counter when you collect.
Available in shop from just two hours, subject to availability.
Thank you for your reservation
Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at
When will my order be ready to collect?
Following the initial email, you will be contacted by the shop to confirm that your item is available for collection.
Call us on or send us an email at
Unfortunately there has been a problem with your order
Please try again or alternatively you can contact your chosen shop on or send us an email at