The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples

I love this book. It really makes history of rocks and animals of this continent come alive in the most spectacular way. This really is a page turner and it is improving my vocabulary just by reading it.

"The Eternal Frontier" by Tim Flannery, sub-titled "An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples." Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001.An in-depth history of the continent of North America, with tidbits from South America, Australia and Eurasia thrown in. The book traces the ecological history of the Continent down to the present, with an emphasis on the disappering or changing frontier. The author, an Australian professor, despite his Irish surname, describes the changes in the fauna (and somewhat the flora) of North America over the past 65 millions year, from the crashdown of the comet that destroyed the dinosaurs to the arrival of mankind and down to the present age, with the influx of immigrants, mainly from Europe. Professor Flannery takes for granted the theory of the movement of continental landmasses over the eons, the destruction of an entire order of creation by the smashing effects of a comet (asteroid?) and the arrival of the first humans about 13,200 years. Interestingly, Flannery is not afraid to be politically incorrect, as he ascribes the destruction of the mammoths, mastodons and other large animals (including the giant sloths and horses) to the arrival and expert skill of the first humans, the ancestors of today's Native Americans. These "Clovis Points" hunters were so expert that in a short three centuries they rid both North and South America of these largest animals in what Flannery describes as "a megafauna barbecue". He has a way with words, and every now and then puts in some Australian usage, e.g. "wonky".In his description of evolution of the animals on North America, Dr. Flannery makes it clear that dogs "(family Canidae) are a true production of North America". After describing the dogs and their North American evolution, he addresses the cheetah, belonging to the only genus of living cats that may have originated in North America. On p. 115, he writes a memorable statement, "What is a cheetah but a cat trying to be a dog?" The Professor's insight is different than most of my college and university teachers!As the book gets close and closer to the present time, the chapters become shorter and shorter. He spends some time describing the political and stylish differences between the New England colonies and Virginia, with an emphasis on how a New World weed, tobacco, would shape Virginia's history, leading to plantations and "egalitarianism". He terms the American War of Independence "...a bitter struggle, a true civil war", which, with his Irish surname, I would not expect. The Irish immigrants in the American Continental Army, and the German settlers in Pennsylvania and Upstate New York definitely did not consider the Revolution to be civil war between Englishmen.The book is well written, and well documented, with pages 358 to 385 devoted to Notes and books referenced. Flannery certainly gives you a different point of view on North America!

Finally, the story of the North American continent in all its mythic grandeur! As a EuroAmerican, I learn from Flannery's tale that my kind, too, can become indigenous - just as all the other recent immigrants - the "native" Americans, the elk, the griz, the moose, the gray wolf, even our bison and almost all our other large mammals - have gradually become indigenous during the past 13,000 years. Recent immigrants all. How can we become indigenous? By ending once and for all our exploitation of a "frontier" land and instead coming to relate to this continent as our home.For 65 million years, and especially for the last 13,000 years since the continental ice sheets melted and the first humans arrived, North America has been a land of immigrants. Flannery explores 3 evolutionary forces (the founder effect, ecological and social release, and adaptation) throughout all phases of the Cenozoic. By the time he works up to the EuroAmerican colonial period and the newest waves of human immigration, the continental themes are secure in the reader's mind. Stunning new insights for ecological and social progress thus become available.For the final two-thirds of this book, I barely could put it down. I was in awe, both of the ideas and the beauty of Flannery's presentation. This Australian has done for my continent what is so desperately needed: the creation of a mythic tale that is true to the science yet can guide and inspire us to move forward, to heal our relationship to this magnificent land. Thomas Berry (coauthor of "The Universe Story") has long been urging Americans to find and celebrate their continental story, midway between the story of the cosmos/Earth and all our various bioregional stories. Finally, finally, the continental story emerges. Make no mistake: this is North America speaking through the voice of Tim Flannery. Let us listen to the wisdom and urgings of our continental home!I myself plan to begin telling this mythic story wherever and whenever I get the chance. Flannery's remarkable book provides the context for my own work on continental faunal and floral changes since the Ice Ages, which is presented in my 2001, "The Ghosts of Evolution." And gosh golly, I have to recommend his book above my own! Bravo, Tim Flannery! And, hello North America!

Tim Flannery's book The Eternal Frontier is not a perfect book [but was closer to a 5 than a 4 for me], but given the amount of Earth history it covers well and in detail, it's a helluva read. Flannery covers the history of North America from the really bad day that ended the Cretaceous Period up to the present day. Flannery could've included so much more, but then The Eternal Frontier would've been turned into an Earth history textbook, which was not the author's purpose. I do agree with other reviewers that more illustrations would have been nice [maybe if The Eternal Frontier does well, an illustrated edition a' la A Brief history Of Time or Longitude might be forthcoming], but for readers with a little background and a big imagination, the lack of illustrations shouldn't be too much a hindrance to enjoying the book. The thing I liked the most about the book was the seamless incorporation of humans into the story. One of my personal pet peeves is the rigid dichotomy of natural versus synthetic that often shows up in ecological discourse. Certain human activities ARE unique in the history of the Earth [e.g. humans produce chemicals never before seen on Earth], but to consider the ecology of the Earth without humans as an integral part is incorrect and foolish. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Earth history or ecology, with a special recommend to those folks involved in any current environmental and ecological debate in North America who want to have a thorough grounding in the history of the place they are arguing over. Whether for good or for ill, the near future of North America and the Earth includes human beings and all thinking humans should know something about how we got to where we are.

Eternal Frontier is a marvelous read, lively, insightful, fast - well, you have to go fast to cover 65 million years in 357 pages. And, boy, does Flannery cover the territory. A student of the animal kingdon, he has covered a lot of physical territory in his career, studying the remains of extinct species and searching for undescribed living ones in the forests of New Guinea. Small wonder, then, that Flannery is at his best when contemplating the forces that led to the evolution or extinction of species, or of entire classes of species. In the pages of Eternal Frontier ancient periods of warm climate conjure tropical forests in the Dakotas and create strange herbivorous beasts who munch their way across the landscape, only to be swept away by the onset of an ice age. The pleasure for readers is that Flannery doesn't just describe what took place, he leads us into an understanding of the process whereby creatures evolve to fill vacant niches in an evolving ecosystem. It is wonderful stuff. The closer we come to the present day, however, the further Flannery moves from material he knows really well. Readers spoiled by such masterful works of ecological history as William Cronon's Changes in the Land and Donald Worster's Rivers of Empire will find Flannery shallow indeed. In truth, this entire, wonderful book will not bring much pleasure to readers who are familiar with the subjects covered. When confronted with confusing evidence that might support one of several plausible historical scenarios, Flannery picks the one he finds most compelling and dismisses the others. Extinction of the paleolithic megafauna, for example, was here caused by overhunting by spear-carrying paleo-Indians, the first humans to enter the western hemisphere, who arrived about 13,000 years ago. This dismisses some major areas of evidence to the contrary. Flannery is, of course, familiar with this evidence. Readers will not discover how compelling some of it is. When the story reaches European settlement, it becomes clear that Flannery has only a cursory familiarity with the literature. The irony is that both when dealing with the pre-history he knows so well and with the historical period with which he is less familiar, Flannery has a sure instinct for apparant truth. Most of the hypothesis that he ignores or dismisses are, indeed, less well-supported than the story he tells. And even when in discussing the historical period he gets lots of the details wrong, he has the grand outline right. A reader of Eternal Frontier will have a very good grasp of how nature continues to shape America. The advantage of Flannery's approach is that he tells a ripping good story. It moves quickly, it is fun to read, it is thought-provoking, and it is even true.

Flannery begins his ecological history of North America 65m years ago with the Chicxulub asteroid impact spraying molten rock far into the present Canada and creating a shockwave that flattened trees across the continent. North America lost 80% of its flowering plant species and the dust polluted the atmosphere so most photosynthesis stopped as the planet entered a decade of freezing temperatures.From here the book describes the major ecological developments through to the present, starting with how the continental drift of Australia from Antarctica and the rise of the Panamanian isthmus impacted on North America's climate. Even when writing of continental drift, Flannery's account is fast-paced. Some will deplore Flannery's speculations, but I found them intensely stimulating. One speculation is not necessarily like another: a well-informed speculation can help to eliminate more far-fetched speculations. This quote exemplifies his well-informed speculation:"The lifestyles of the oreodonts have been a mystery for some time. Some possessed eyes on the top of their heads like hippos, which certain researchers have taken to indicate an aquatic life. Oreodont remains, though, are most common in windblown sediments, indicating dry conditions. New and still contentious studies focusing on well-preserved remains of animals that were presumably buried where they lived suggest that some oreodonts may have been burrowers. Some skeletons even have the remains of foetuses, usually, two, three or four, preserved in their mother's belly. Such large animals tend to have so many young only if they live a precarious life, prompting one researcher to suggest that oreodonts used those eyes atop their heads to peek over the rims of their burrows before emerging. But what kind of danger were they keeping an eye out for? The caution of the oreodonts may have been prompted by the pig-like entelodonts...."Throughout the book Flannery lifts the lid on some of the liveliest scientific controversies. Thus he begins the second half of the book with a clear account of carbon-14 dating and the debate about whether the extinction of most American megafauna was caused by climate change or the arrival of the American Indians. Both debates have political implications for present social policy and Flannery does not, thankfully, smother his account with politically-correct obfuscation.Chapter 23 describes the destruction of the American Indians - an eye-opener for someone like me who, as a child, played "cowboys and Indians" on the premise that the two sides were evenly matched. Flannery is fascinated with the notion of "frontier" as was Frederick Jackson Turner who documented the closure of North America's physical frontier; but for Flannery the frontier lives on in US popular culture.Flannery describes how the myth of the eternally bountiful frontier has fostered a cavalier disregard for environmental laws and other attempts to constrain profligate behaviour. A natio