Earthcare: Women and the Environment
Virginia Scharff has used the word "embryonic" to describe the field of women's environmental history ("Are Earth Girls Easy? Ecofeminism, Women's History and Environmental History," Journal of Women's History, Summer 1995). According to Scharff, the melding of gender analysis and environmental history was "singlehandedly" brought to the forefront of women's studies by historian Merchant in her "pathbreaking" work, The Death of Nature: Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (Harper & Row, 1980). In this work, Merchant continues her exploration of the "association of women with nature in Western culture and their roles in the contemporary environmental movement." Earthcare is a blend of some of Merchant's previously published work with the addition of several new essays; it begins with the myth and association of nature as female (Gaia) and fallen from grace (Eve). The greatest strength of Earthcare is its recounting of women's environmental history during the last 100 years. Highly recommended for academic women's studies and environmental history collections.?Susan Maret, Univ. of Colorado Lib., DenverCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.