Carolyn Merchant

Carolyn Merchant's Ecological Revolutions explores the stages of ecological transformation that took place in New England as European settlers took control of the land. The resulting “colonial ecological revolution” was to hold sway until roughly the time of American independence, when the onset of industrialization and increasing urbanization brought about the “capitalist ecological revolution.” By the late nineteenth century, Merchant argues, New England had become a society that viewed the whole ecosphere as an arena for human domination.

In Radical Ecology, Merchant argues that laws, regulations, and scientific research alone cannot reverse the spread of pollution or restore dwindling resources. In order to maintain a livable world, we must formulate new social, economic, scientific, and spiritual approaches that will fundamentally transform human relationships with nature. She analyzes the revolutionary ideas of visionary ecologists and examines their efforts to bring environmental problems to the attention of the public. She explores the problems, ideas, and actions that will make society rethink, reconstruct, and reinvent its relationships with non-human nature in search of a livable world.

Merchant's Earthcare challenges humanity to revise the ways the Western world has produced, reproduced, and conceptualized its past relations with nature, and suggests a new partnership ethic of environmentalism which men and women alike can embrace. It argues that a cooperative approach will help to create a habitable, sustainable world.

In Reinventing Eden, Carolyn Merchant traces the Garden of Eden myth from the Mesopotamian region, where agriculture—and the creation myth—first began, through the Greek and Roman empires, the Enlightenment, and the modern capitalist world. We must consider nature as an independent agent capable of autonomous action. We need to work with nature, balancing our needs and desires with those of the natural world, to include green political parties, sustainable development, and a partnership between humans and the earth.

By studying the many ways diverse peoples have changed, shaped, and conserved the natural world over time, Carolyn Merchant's American Environmental History provides insights into humanity's unique relationship with nature and, more importantly, helps us to better understand the origins of our environmental crisis. It addresses issues such as the expulsion of native peoples from national parks, the preservation of the wilderness, and population growth in the light of gender, race, and class.

Autonomous Nature investigates the history of nature as an active, often unruly force in tension with nature as a rational, logical order from ancient times to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. Along with subsequent advances in mechanics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism, nature came to be perceived as an orderly, rational, physical world that could be engineered, controlled, and managed. This book focuses on the history of unpredictability, why it was a problem for the ancient world through the Scientific Revolution, and why it is a problem for today.  

In 1887, a year after founding the Audubon Society, explorer and conservationist George Bird Grinnell launched Audubon Magazine. The magazine constituted one of the first efforts to preserve bird species decimated by the women's hat trade, hunting, and loss of habitat. Within two years, however, for practical reasons, Grinnell dissolved both the magazine and the society. Remarkably, Grinnell's mission was soon revived by women and men who believed in it, and the work continues today. Spare the Birds! presents the exceptional story of George Bird Grinnell and his writings and legacy. It features Grinnell's biographies of ornithologists John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson and his editorials and descriptions of Audubon's bird paintings.

Science and Nature brings together the work and insights of Carolyn Merchant on the history of science, environmental history, and ethics. The book explores her ideas about the interconnections among science, women, nature, and history as they have emerged over her academic lifetime. Focusing on topics such as The Death of Nature, the Scientific Revolution, women in the history of science and environment, and partnership ethics, it synthesizes her writings and sets out a vision for the twenty-first century.

The Anthropocene and the Humanities focuses on the original concept of the Anthropocene first proposed by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in their foundational 2000 paper. Here they argued that the Anthropocene—The Age of Humanity—was launched in 1766 with the invention of James Watt's version of the steam engine, making possible steam engines, steam boats, trains, and factories, and ultimately leading to automobiles and airplanes. Using history, art, literature, religion, philosophy, ethics, and justice as the focal points, Merchant traces key figures and developments in the humanities throughout the Anthropocene era and explores how these disciplines might influence sustainability in the next century.

In this edited book, Carolyn Merchant introduces students to primary sources and analytical essays by well-known environmental historians on important topics in U.S. environmental history from native American times to the present. It asks students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians and others, and draw their own conclusions. Each chapter of Major Problems in American Environmental History includes a map that situates the topic within a place and era, along with suggestions for further reading.

Starting with an examination of the use of modernist thought as legitimation for the domination of nature, this collection of essays progresses on a broad front: it examines how First-World economies create Third-World dependency; the connections between poverty and population; how basic needs could be fulfilled in a green sustainable economy; the debate between deep, social, and socialist ecologists over the new ecological worldview; ecofeminism and the liberation of both women and nature; environmental justice for minorities and Third-World peoples; the need for new spiritual relations between people and nature; and a new postmodern science that offers people a partnership with nature. The conclusion of Key Concepts in Critical Theory: Ecology presents the “Principles of Environmental Justice,” adopted by the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit.

Green Versus Gold is an edited book that provides a compelling look at California's environmental history from its Native American past to conflicts and movements of recent decades. It brings together a large storehouse of primary sources and interpretative essays to create a comprehensive picture of the history of ecological and human interactions in one of the nation's most diverse and resource-rich states.

While the relationship between humanity and nature has been a constant feature of the human situation, the human impact on the environment has only recently become a topic of general interest to students, as well as to scholars and professionals in disciplines across the board. This co-edited three-volume set provides not only broad historical coverage on how human beliefs and actions have altered the natural world, but also covers the latest developments in the field. The Encyclopedia of World Environmental History also includes an analysis of natural phenomena and events and their impact on human societies.

A festschrift honoring Carolyn Merchant's work, After the Death of Nature, edited by Kenneth Worthy, Elizabeth Allison, and Whitney A. Bauman, appeared in 2018. This book examines and builds on Carolyn Merchant's legacy of environmental thought and her critical responses to modern mechanistic and patriarchal conceptions of nature and women, as well as her systematic taxonomies of environmental thought and action. Scholars featured in the book assess, praise, critique, and extend her work to arrive at a more extended understanding of the human place in nature today. The book examines and builds on Carolyn Merchant's decades-long legacy of innovative environmental thought and her critical responses to modern mechanistic and patriarchal conceptions of nature and women, as well as her systematic taxonomies of environmental thought and action. The ideas hold the potential for healthier and more just relations with nature and among peoples in the future.

Carolyn Merchant has also written more than 100 single-authored research articles.[21] A symposium honoring her work was held in 2018.[22]