A Place for Stories Nature, History, And Narrative

A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative Author(s): William Cronon Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Mar., 1992), pp. 1347-1376 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2079346 . Accessed: 16/02/2013 23:36Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Organization of American Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of American History.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:36:21 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A Place forStories: and Narrative Nature,History,

WilliamCrononneilive intheHereandNow. nature knows animals Only entirely only Children, - is thestory- letme offer youa definition ther norhistory. Butman memory wake, not nota chaotic animal. hegoes hewants toleave behind Wherever telling He and trail-signs ofstories. an empty marker-buoys butthecomforting space, them up.Aslongas there's onmaking stories. He hastokeep hastogoontelling in hislastmoments, second ofa a story, it'sall right. Even it'ssaid,in thesplit the he'sabout before him, fatal fall orwhen todrown he sees, rapidly passing life. ofhiswhole story -Graham Swift, Waterland

in many ofmany places, In thebeginning wasthestory. Or rather: many stories, toward ends. many voices, pointing theGreat that struck In 1979, thelongdrought about two books were published PaulBonnifield, titles: Thetwo hadnearly identical one,by Plains the1930s. during The two Dust Bowl., wascalledTheDust Bowl;theother, byDonaldWorster, of the same thesamesubject, had researched dealtwith authors many virtually could conclusions onmost andyet their andagreed oftheir hardly facts, documents, different. havebeenmore runs likethis: closing argument Bonnifield's

at Yale University. of history WilliamCrononis professor versions of this various who haveread and criticized and colleagues I wouldlike to thankthe manyfriends I'veadopted against mywill,thattheperspective forconvincing me,rather wasresponsible David Laurence essay. vocabutoacquirethecritical as I tried guidance generous and he offered norevaded, ignored couldbe neither here guidein has been mymostfaithful David Scobey As always, larythatwouldallowme to tackletheseproblems. from Thomas and suggestions theory. Comments ofliterary the densethickets mywaythrough me find helping AnnFaDavidson,David BrionDavis,Kai Erikson, Robert Burt,MichaelP. Cohen,James EliseBroach, Bender, Howard Guha, ReeveHuston,SusanJohnson, Ramachandra bian, PeterGay,AmyGreen,MichaelGoldberg, Robert JimO'Brien, Morrissey, Arch GeorgeMiles,Katherine McCallum, Limerick, Lear,Patricia Lamar, Jonathan Richard Weiskel, WebbIII, Timothy PaulTaylor, Tesh, Thompson Sylvia AlanTaylor, Smith, Thompson Shulman, on thissublikewise readers helpedshapemythoughts and twoanonymous Donald Worster, Wolf, White,Bryan me to in encouraging persistence I owe a specialdebt to David Thelen and StevenStowefortheir ject. Finally, to all. to an essayI had all but abandoned.I am grateful return (New York,1983), 53-54. GrahamSwift, is from JVaterland The openingquotation 1 Paul Bonnifield, Dust (Albuquerque,1979); Donald Worster, TheDust Bowl: Men, Dirt,and Depression in general, see thecollec1979).On Dust Bowlhistoriography Plainsin the 1930s(NewYork, Bowl: TheSouthern in GreatPlains Quarterly, 6 (Spring1986). tionof essays

History of American The Journal

March1992

1347


1348

History ofAmerican TheJournal

March 1992

in worked hernatural millions ofpeoplehaveeatenbetter, resources, tapped people determined Because those warmer homes. andenjoyed places, healthier a better stanenjoys thenation today a crisis, didnot flee thestricken area during dardofliving.2 on the otherhand,paintsa bleaker picture: Worster, lifeof the in thetwentieth-century The Dust Bowlwasthedarkest moment - a region Thename areasinexact whose borders a place southern suggests plains. even planetary ofnational, andshifting as a sanddune.Butitwasalsoan event A Borgfood problems, George authority onworld widely respected significance. three worst ecological hasranked the DustBowl asoneofthe creation ofthe strom, inprecisely the It came theculture wasoperating aboutbecause social disorder.wayit wassupposedto. . or in history. . . . It cannotbe blamedon illiteracy or overpopulation blunders.

theland and and worked during thosehardyears stayed ment.... Becausethey

people ofpeople, wasthestory ofthedustbowl thestory In thefinal analysis, andcourage.... fortitude, with resourcefulness, people ability andtalent, with peoplewithout poverty-ridden were notdefeated, Thepeopleofthedustbowl continued years they those hard During builders for tomorrow. were hope.They commutheir their businesses, their schools, their colleges, their churches, tobuild common were oftheland.Hardyears closer toGodandfonder They grew nities. ready toseizethemowhowere to those in their belonged past, butthefuture

and task ofdominating setitself [the] a culture that self-consciously, deliberately, all it wasworth.3 thelandfor exploiting

. The Dust Bowl .

.

outcomeof . was theinevitable

when a natural were disaster; mainly theduststorms ofthe 1930s ForBonnifield, their their for their very homes, farms, therainsgaveout, people had to struggle and community in thatstruggle ofindividual Theirsuccess wasa triumph survival. version differs cleaneditup. Worster's andhumanbeings nature madea mess, spirit: exthe 1930s,their disappearance therainsdid failduring Although dramatically. Dust Bowl the The story of semiarid environment. of a the cyclical climate pressed ofhumanbeings to accomislessaboutthefailures ofnature thanaboutthefailures humanmisunderstandings of willful modatethemselves to nature.A long series weremainly cultural. led finally to a collapsewhoseorigins and assaults are ofthese we inclined to Whichever follow, they posea dilemma interpretations - indeed, a dilemmaforall who studypast environmental forscholars change howtwocompetent As often makeus wonder historians. they happensin history, materials drawnfrom the same past can reachsuch authors lookingat identical their conclusions thatdiffer. Although conclusions. But it is not merely divergent similar cast of the same broad seriesof events withan essentially both narrate In bothtexts, is inexthe story tell twoentirely different stories. characters, they muchofitsforce derives and thehistorical analysis boundto itsconclusion, tricably aska more sweepoftheplot. So wemusteventually from theupward ordownward comefrom? basicquestion:wheredid thesestories2 Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl,202. 3Worster,Dust Bowl,4.


andNarrative History, Nature,

1349

us intothemuchcontested ittransports for thanitseems, is trickier The question As an critical theory. socialscienceand postmodernist traditional terrain between with ofhistory traditions to blendtheanalytical who tries historian environmental I cannothelp feeling and otherfields, anthropology, economics, thoseofecology, On the groundwe all nowseem to occupy. theoretical uneasyabout the shifting a netwithin is that humanactsoccur ofmyfield premise one hand,a fundamental are culas they thatare as ecological and systems processes, work ofrelationships, class,and race,environmental as gender, categories tural.To such basichistorical in whichplants,animals,soils,clivocabulary would add a theoretical historians of and codeterminants becomethe coactors entities mates,and othernonhuman myperspecwhoshare itself. Forscholars a history notjustofpeoplebutoftheearth on people, and the effects itsobjective of the natural world, the importance tive, heartofour the very are arenotat issue;they it in turn concrete ways people affect thatofourcolleagues with work allyourhistorical We therefore project. intellectual themechato approximate try imperfectly, however whosemodels, in thesciences, nismsof nature.4 commitment a powerful alsomaintain history ofenvironmental scholars And yet weseem within an ecosystem, humanactivities form. Whenwedescribe tonarrative ofthe theevents we configure to tellstories aboutthem.'Likeall historians, always - stories - thatorder to give thoseevents and simplify past into causal sequences form thattries is thechief literary We do so becausenarrative themnewmeanings. chronological crowdedand disordered to find meaningin an overwhelmingly histories, we givethem ourenvironmental Whenwe choosea plot to order reality. so clearly. In so doing,we move northepastpossesses nature a unity thatneither avoid ofvalue.There, wecannot humanrealm intotheintensely nature wellbeyond not which callsintoquestion assault on narrative, thepostmodernist encountering us in thefirst place: we tell but thedeeperpurposethatmotivated justthestories to makesenseof nature's place in the humanpast. trying we dividethecausalrelationships change, stories aboutenvironmental Bywriting relevant and excluded, included thatdefines razor witha rhetorical ofan ecosystem from In theactof separating story and disempowered. and irrelevant, empowered form. It toolof thenarrative yetdangerous we wieldthemostpowerful non-story, narwith which the authority very that literary theory of modern is a commonplace of that largeportions is achieved byobscuring itsvisionof reality presents rative ellipses, thatit hides the discontinuities, succeedsto the extent Narrative reality.see history, agendasofenvironmental intellectual the emerging thatexplores discussion 4For a wide-ranging 76 (March1990), 1087-1147. History, JournalofAmerican History," "A RoundTable:Environmental that distinction 5 Throughout despitea technical interchangeably, and "narrative" I willuse "story" thisessay, whereas is a limited ofhistory, genre, "story" critics and philosophers Forsomeliterary them. can be madebetween all representations thatorganizes rhetoric partofclassical is themuchmoreencompassing (or narratio) narrative since meaningforbothwords, sequenceof completedactions.I intendthe broader of timeinto a configured I hope it is emphatically and defend. I wishto criticize senseis the activity in itsmostfundamental "storytelling" aroundthebiograthatrevolves narrative history to "traditional" a return thatI am noturging clearat theoutset historians I am urging rather, and intellectuals); (usuallyelitewhitemale politicians individuals phiesof "great" to inthatpay littleattention core evenof longue durie histories as the necessary storytelling to acknowledge ofmyarguments and most applyjustas readily ofthese, is butone example history people.Environmental dividual to the others.


1350

History TheJournal ofAmerican

March 1992

ofits theintended meaning thatwouldundermine and contradictory experiences exercise ofpower: it inpurpose, it cannotavoida covert story. Whatever itsovert reconothers. A powerful narrative whilesilencing evitably sanctions somevoices seem determined and the artificial structs common senseto makethe contingent Ifthisis true, problems for difficult seemnatural. thennarrative posesparticularly and the between the artificial forwhomthe boundary environmental historians, Bonnifield's The differences between wemost wish to study. natural isthevery thing oftheDust Bowlclearly that bounhavesomething to do with andWorster's versions ofmyhistorunderpinnings aboutthetheoretical dary, as does myownuneasiness ical craft.6 so thateven theory is to write too muchin abstractions, The diseaseof literary if not downright opaque. Lestthisessay the simplest meanings becomedifficult I proposeto terrain. off intolitcrit fog,let me ground it on morefamiliar wander in environmental to the Great history byreturning examine the role of narrative here past.What I offer historians havetoldthatregion's Plainsto survey theways is eclectic and willnotbe a comprehensive sincemychoiceoftexts historiography, I willuse a handful I willignore ofGreatPlainshistories major works. Rather, many On the thatnarrative to explore themuchvexed posesforall historians. problems the deep challenges thatpostmodernism poses one hand, I hope to acknowledge I wishto record ofnarrative"; on theother, my forthosewho applaud "therevival remains essential to our still narrative ownconviction -chastened but strong-that of history and the humanplace in nature. understanding sinceChristopher Columbus If we consider the Plainsin the halfmillennium seemlikely to standoutin anylong-term crossed theAtlantic, certain events history thesenot as a story but as a simplelist-I of the region.If I wereto tryto write stories aboutthe succeedin so doing,sincethetaskofnottelling willnotentirely - theresulting chronicle thanitmayseem outto be muchmoredifficult pastturns likethis. mightrunsomething theAtlantic Ocean. So did some westacross Fivecenturies ago,people traveled plantsand animals.One of these-the horse-appeared on the Plains. Native eventheAtlantic from across to huntbison.Humanmigrants peoplesused horses6 Muchof thereading or footnote. to a singleargument thatlies behindthisessaycannoteasilybe attached are the following: of narrative and problems on the importance thathelpedshape myviews Amongthe works Kellogg,TheNature and Robert Scholes 1964);Robert Cliffs, (Englewood ofHistory WilliamH. Dray, Philosophy (New ofFiction The Sense ofan Ending:Studiesin the Theory Kermode, (New York,1966); Frank ofNarrative Europe(Baltimore, in Nineteenth-Century Imagination TheHistorical Metahistory: 1967);HaydenWhite, York, and H. Canary 1978);Robert (Baltimore, Criticism in Cultural Essays ofDiscourse: White,Tropics 1973);Hayden (Madison,1978);W. J. T. andHistorical Understanding Form Literary ofHistory: Kozicki, eds.,TheWriting Henry Narrative as a Socially ThePoliticalUnconscious: Jameson, (Chicago,1981);Fredric Mitchell, ed., On Narrative (Ithaca, Structuralism and Criticism Theory On Deconstruction: Culler, Jonathan Act(Ithaca,1981); Symbolic after Timeand Narrative 1983); Paul Ricoeur, (Minneapolis, An Introduction Theory: Literary Eagleton, 1982);Terry LaCapra,Rethinking and David Pellauer;Dominick KathleenBlarney (3 vols.,Chicago,1984,1985,1988),trans. Inand Knowledge: C. Danto, Narration Texts, Contexts, Language(Ithaca,1983); Arthur History: Intellectual and GeorgeE. (New York,1985);JamesClifford Philosophy ofHistory Textof Analytical cludingthe Integral Recent 1986);WallaceMartin, (Berkeley, ofEthnography and Politics Culture:ThePoetics Marcus, eds., Writing (Ithaca,1987);HaydenWhite,The Understanding Historical (Ithaca,1986);Louis0. Mink, ofNarrative Theories 1987); and Kai Erikson, (Baltimore, Representation Discourseand Historical Contentof the Form:Narrative possession). manuscript (in WilliamCronon's unpublished forBig Daddy: A Parable," "Obituary



1351

a lot. The bisonherdsdisapappearedon the Plainsas well.People fought tually builthomesfor The newimmigrants to reservations. peoplesmoved peared.Native raising grasses, plowedthe prairie Settlers Herdsof cattleincreased. themselves. and into other things and people moved Railroads grains. other and wheat, corn, abandoned Some lackofrain. people failedfor Cropssometimes outoftheregion. was there Duringthe 1930s, other peoplestayed. and movedelsewhere; farms their ended.A lot Thenthedrought duststorms. withmany bad drought, a particularly and in fields foruse on their out of the ground of people beganto pump water animals. of herds and continueto raisecrops Plainsfarmers towns.Today, their It willbe endsmeet.ManyIndiansliveon reservations. making Somehavetrouble to see whathappensnext. interesting whoreadsit,as ifa childwere to anyone peculiar I trust thatthislistseemspretty as muchsense to remove tried how.I've quiteknowing without to tella story trying themnot as a narrative amongthesedetailsas I can. I've presented ofconnection in seoccurred as they of events listing a simplechronological but as a chronicle, to onlywhatI declared sinceI presented Thiswas not a pure chronicle, quence.7 imof act very separating the By history. ofPlains events be the"mostimportant" ofnot-so-hidden a number smuggled I actually events, unimportant from portant ortheconquest ofthehorse as themigration so thatsuchthings intomylist, stories ofmyostensibly in themidst swirls narrative little begantoform ofthePlainstribes thateverocevent wouldhaveincludedevery A purechronicle account. story-less sunset howlargeor small,so thata colorful on theGreatPlains,no matter curred in nearLeavenworth of cowson a farm milking 1623 or a morning in September ofthebisonherds a place as the destruction justas prominent 1897wouldoccupy or the 1930sdust storms. that forreasons let alone construct, evento imagine, Such a textis impossible thepastin the Whenwe encounter narrative.8 for affection historians' helpexplain to us. We have trouble it becomesmuch less recognizable of a chronicle, form hardto did, and it becomes happenedwhenand howthey things out why sorting eachother, seemlessconnectedto Things ofevents. significance therelative evaluate in a chronicle tous. Mostimportant, relates howall thisstuff unclear anditbecomes Without moment. ofwhatwasgoingon at anyparticular losethethread we easily -even harder much becomes everything events, of flow the someplot to organize - to understand. impossible into of GreatPlainshistory thatwill turnthefacts a story How do we discover plots ofhistorical The repertoire andunderstood? recognized easily more somethingin White,Metahistory, 5-7; White, analyzed is morefully and narrative chronicle between 'This distinction in Writing ofHistory, Formas a Cognitive Instrument," Louis 0. Mink,"Narrative 109-11; ofDiscourse, Tropics 1986),59; Danto,Narra(Bloomington, andHistory Time, Narrative, 141-44;David Carr, andKozicki, ed. Canary 27 and Theory, The Case of History," History Explanations: tionand Knowledge;and Paul A. Roth,"Narrative (no. 1, 1988), 1-13. whatconstisuchas howwerecognize herethatI willnotdiscuss, problems 8 There aredeeperepistemological arethembecomeclearthat"events" aroundit. It shouldeventually and howwedrawboundaries an "event" tutes to imagine impossible themand areprobably we configure withwhich bythestories and delimited defined selves context. theirnarrative apartfrom


1352

ofAmerican History TheJournal

March 1992

and could be drawn not I'vejustchronicled is endless wemight applyto theevents the rangeof and myth. To simplify just fromhistory but fromall of literature plots.On theone hand, twolarge groups ofpossible choices, letme start byoffering inwhich theplotlinegraduwecannarrate Plains as a story ofimprovement, history - happier, richer, freer, that issomehow more positive allyascends toward an ending in whichthe better-thanthe beginning. On the otherhand, we can tell stories -sadder, poorer, an endingthatis morenegative plot line eventually fallstoward - thantheplacewhere ofplotsmight thestory began.Theone group lessfree, worse Enbe called"progressive," their historical dependence on eighteenth-century given or "declenthe othermightbe called "tragic" lightenment notionsof progress; reactions rootsto romantic and antimodernist sionist," tracingtheirhistorical againstprogress. Ifwelookattheways environhaveactually written aboutthechanging historians and declenand downward linesofprogress mentofthe GreatPlains,theupward themconstisionareeverywhere The very ease with which we recognize apparent. tutes a warning we areentering. compelling thesestories However abouttheterrain form has lessto do change, their narrative maybe as depictions ofenvironmental so withnaturethanwithhumandiscourse. Theirplotsare cultural constructions theGreatPlains. resonate farbeyond deeplyembeddedin ourlanguagethatthey us to shape did not invent Historians encourages them,and their very familiarity in or our storytelling Placed a particular historical ideological patterns. to fittheir influence that neither bothhavehiddenagendas context, group ofplotsis innocent: are theseagendasthatnot So powerful whatthe narrative includesand excludes. eventhe historian as authorentirely controls them. as a taleoffronfor the historians who narrate GreatPlainshistory Take, instance, thisbasicplotwasofcourse tier The mostfamous ofthosewhoembraced progress. the forwhom the story of the nation recapitulated Frederick Jackson Turner, and to producea uniquelydemocratic ascending stagesof Europeancivilization of the American Turner saw the transformation landscape egalitarian community. as thecentral sagaofthenafrom wilderness to trading postto farm to boomtown itstruesubject, If everthere itsend byerasing tion.9 was a narrative thatachieved land"could and "free Turner's frontier wasit:theheroic encounter between pioneers one people'sfreedom thattraded theconquest onlybecomeplausiblebyobscuring ofprogress, thefrontier foranother's. Indiansthefoilforitsstory plot Bymaking But to saythisis inevitable. commonsensical, made their conquestseemnatural, and after In countless it versions both before the narrative's power. onlyto affirm reand progress of frontier thisstory struggle form, acquireditsclassicTurnerian In its of American narratives history. mainsamongthe oldestand mostfamiliar invasion and to present a conflict-ridden to turn ability ordinary people intoheroes fulfilled it perfectly as an epic march democratic toward nationhood, enlightened moment.10 the ideological needs of its late-nineteenth-century9 Frederick (New York,1920), 12. History in American The Frontier Turner, Jackson 10I havewritten the WilliamCronon,"Revisiting in twoessays: work ofTurner's structure abouttherhetorical 18(April1987),157-76; Historical Western ofFrederickJackson The Legacy Turner," Frontier: Vanishing Quarterly,



1353

than to frontier progress prove lesstractable The GreatPlainswouldeventually thatit conhimself wouldsayoftheregion ofthenation.Turner many other parts them"first defeat," butthatdidn'tstopthesettlers farmer's stituted theAmerican One ofDakota Territory's story."1 their pastwiththe frontier selves from narrating in the1880sthatthe Robert Hare,prophesied BishopWilliam leadingmissionaries, and lineofmigration, struggle, an upward wouldfollow plotofDakotasettlement triumph:wilderness burnt grass ofanuninhabited ankle deepinthe short Youmay stand where point thewaste andstopatsome a mixed train will glideover next month and children willjump a town. Men,women therailroad hasdecided to locate willbe tumbled them. that moFrom outofthecars, andtheir chattel outafter pioneers aresomething andfaith ofthese begins. Thecourage ment thebuilding Their to riseabove all obstacles.12 spirit seems extraordinary.

offuture a prophecy ofprogress and prospective, wasongoing ForHare,thisvision visions. be appliedto retrospective couldjustas easily growth, butthesamepattern Hill, couldlookbackin 1909at the 1890s, An early ofOklahoma, Luther historian in a mereten a greatchangein Oklahomaterritory": a decade thathad "wrought settlers had transformed the"stagnant pool" ofunusedIndianlandsintothe years, of agricultural "waving grainfields,the herdsof cattle,and the broad prospect in the beholderwho sees the prosperity [which]cause delightand evensurprise in producing Ordinary people saw suchmarvels ofwealth."13 results ofcivilization the had unfolded as thefulfillment of a grandstory that during suchdescriptions ownlifetimes. As one Kansastownswoman, oftheir Middlekauf, course Josephine concluded, I could ofitsgrowth volumes telling inHays, write ofpioneering After sixty years in comfortable churches, homes, finished product materials intothealmost raw fruits andflowers.14 trees, schools, pavedstreets, ofmoreor less moreabstractly. Consider thesesmallnarratives Theytella story in which envia relatively responsive to transform linearprogress, people struggle role narrative Theremaybe moderate but their ronment. setbacks along theway, succeedin rapidly is to playfoilto the heroes who overcome them.Communities The timeframeof the stories is becomingevermorecivilizedand comfortable. in and is locatedhistorically limitedto the lifespan of a singlegeneration, brief, first themoment settlers occupiedIndianlands. Our attention invading justafterin Writing in American of Significance FirstStand: The Significance History," and WilliamCronon,"Turner's Etulain(Albuquerque,1991),73-101. ed. Richard Historians, on ClassicWestern ClassicEssays History: Western Turner (San Marino,1983). Jackson The Eloquenceof Frederick See also RonaldH. Carpenter, 147. History, 11Turner, Frontier in American 12 WilliamRobert Dreams:South R. Lamar,"PublicValuesand Private Hare,ca. 1887,as quoted in Howard 8 (Spring1978), 129. SouthDakota History, Dakota's SearchforIdentity, 1850-1900," 13 Luther of the Stateof Oklahoma(Chicago,1909), 382, 386, 385. B. Hill, A History 14 Josephine fromtheKansasFrontier PioneerWomen:Voices as quoted inJoannaL. Stratton, Middlekauf, (New York,1981),204.

the from tohaveseenitdevelop andprogress.... I havebeensingularly privileged


1354


March 1992

townships, individuals, families, affecting on localevents, those is focused as readers All oftheseframing as areas literary devices, which smallcommunities. and other a happy thatthisis basically the conclusion compelus toward they are historical, fortheworld thatis beinglost,a onlybya hintof nostalgia story. It is tempered nowfading. and energies passions regret foryouthful ofelderly quietundercurrent and thecourage tellis aboutthedramaofsettlement Ifthestory thesenarrators stageon whichthedramaplays ofpioneers, it is just as muchaboutthechanging of a Kansas townis revealednot just by its new itself out. The transformation and gardens;the triumphant its but shade trees, apple orchards, by buildings and oil derricks. pastures, cattle in itswheatfields, ofOklahomaresides prosperity is as thesceneof a story Burkelong ago suggested, critic Kenneth As theliterary visible plot. comprise itsmore that in itas theactions towhathappens fundamental withits consistent arealmostinvariably actions argues thata story's Indeed,Burke oftheacin thequality he writes, "thequality is implicit ofa scene," scene:"there it.""15 tionthatis to takeplace within thatnarrator related to thestory a sceneis directly Iftheway a narrator constructs which after all takes for has deep implications environmental history, thenthis tells, Ifthehistory oftheGreatPlains ofpastnature scenes as itsprimary objectofstudy. and farms, into ranches, wereturned story about how grasslands is a progressive kind of scene forthe requiresa particular then the end of the story gardens, theclosing Just as important, itsnecessary fulfillment. plotlineto reach ascending ends in a wheatfield from scenehas to be different the openingone. If the story thenthemost thelandscape, is thehappy conclusion ofa struggle to transform that musteither form ofthatlandscape ofthestory is thattheearlier basicrequirement in value. It mustdeserve to be transformed. or negative be neutral in the midst narratives begintheir thatthesestorytellers It is thusno accident features. BishopHare's Dakota Territory of landscapes thathave fewredeeming future settlers across and hisrailroad carries as "an uninhabited wilderness," begins it into scenery and Justso does narrative revaluenatureby turning a "waste." in no role the story-or to itsmargins suchcharacters as Indianswhoplay pushing Hill'sOklahoma whoserolesthestory WhenLuther to obscure. is designed rather, Middlecontrolled itremained "a stagnant whileJosephine wasstill pool," byIndians, Evenso as "rawmaterials." theunplowed chiefly kauf Kansasgrasslands perceived with is neutral a phrase as thislastone "rawmaterials" freighted narraseemingly ofprogressive detive within ittheentire story buried meaning. Indeed,itcontains to in which the environment from"raw materials" is transformed velopment each In justthisway, and scenebecomeentangled-with "finished story product." to under-as we try ofinvasion and withthepolitics and civilized progress other, and itshistory. standthe Plainsenvironment are by no stories about GreatPlainssettlement Now in fact,theseoptimistic ofsettling Theproblems in thetwentieth ofhistorical century. means writing typical to proceed story a semiarid environment weresimplytoo greatforthe frontier15

1969), 6-7. (Berkeley, ofMotives Burke, A Grammar Kenneth


Nature, History, andNarrative

1355

without multiple setbacks and crises. Evennarrators who prefer an ascending plot line in their stories of regionalenvironmental changemusttherefore tell a more complicated taleoffailure, struggle, and accommodation in thefaceof a resistant if not hostile landscape. Amongthemostimportant writers who adoptthisnarrative strategy areWalter Prescott Webb and JamesMalin,the twomostinfluential historians of the Great Plainsto write duringthefirst halfof the twentieth century. Webb'sclassic work, TheGreat Plains,waspublishedover halfa century ago and has remained in print to thisday.16 It tells a story thatsignificantly revises the Turnerian frontier. For Webb,thePlainswereradically different from themorebenignenvironments that Anglo-American settlers had encountered in the East. Havingno treesand little theregion water, posed an almostinsurmountable obstacle to thewestward march ofcivilization. After describing thescenein thisway, Webb setshisstory in motion witha revealing passage: In thenewregion-level, timberless, and semi-arid-[settlers] were thrown by Mother intotheclutch ofnewcircumstances. Necessity Their plight has been in this stated way: eastoftheMississippi civilization stood on three legs-land, andtimber; oftheMississippi water, west notonebuttwo ofthese legs were withdrawn,-water andtimber,andcivilization wasleft ononeleg-land.Itissmall wonder that it toppled in temporary over failure.17 It is easyto anticipate thenarrative thatwillflow from thisbeginning: Webbwill tellus howcivilization fellover, thenbuiltitself newlegsand regained itsfooting to continue its triumphant ascent.The central thatsolvestheseproblems agency and drives thestory is humaninvention. forward frontier Unlikethesimpler narratraces a dialectic tives, Webb'shistory between a resistant and thetechnolandscape logicalinnovations thatwillfinally succeedin transforming his book it. Although is over five in itsarguments, hundred intricate certain pageslongand is marvelously great inventions ofWebb's mark theturning wasso scarce, points plot.Becausewater settlers had toobtainitfrom theonly reliable so they source, underground aquifers, invented thehumblebutrevolutionary windmill. Becauseso little woodwasavailable to build fences thatwouldkeepcattleout of cornfields, barbedwirewas inventedin 1874 and rapidly the grasslands. These and other spreadthroughout inventions newlegalsystems for even water -railroads, irrigation, allocating rights, - eventually six-shooter revolvers the bison herds,createda vastcattle destroyed and brokethe prairie sod forfarming. kingdom, the Plainsas "a land of survival Webb closeshis story where bycharacterizing nature ofman. Nature's has moststubbornly resisted theefforts stubbornness very he has made."18 has driven manto theinnovations which Giventhescenic requirelookrather ments ofWebb'snarrative, hisPlainslandscape must different from that ofearlier ForWebb,thesemiarid is neither frontier narrators. environment a wilder16 17

Walter Prescott Webb, The GreatPlains (New York,1931). Ibid., 9.

18Ibid.,508.


1356

TheJournal ofAmerican History

March 1992

the nessnora waste, but itself a worthy antagonist ofcivilization. It is a landscape ofwhich is thenecessary to newlevels very resistance spururging humaningenuity of achievement. Webb thus spends much more time than earlierstorytellers describing the climate, terrain, and ecology of the GreatPlainsso as to extolthe Although his book features thatmade theregion unique in American experience. wefind in earlier endswith thesameglowing imageofa transformed landscape that that preceded frontier narratives, he in no waydevalues the"uncivilized" landscape become it. Quite thecontrary: themoreformidable it is as a rival, themoreheroic In thestruggle in thisdifficult tomakehomesfor itshumanantagonists. themselves their inventiveness but builta reland, thepeople of the Plainsnot onlyproved environment. gionalculture beautifully adaptedto thechallenges oftheir regional of struggle a resistant environment has formed thecoreof Webb'sstory against of the Plains.We havealready encounmostsubsequent environmental histories ofitin Paul Bonnifield's tered one version TheDust Bowl.It can also be discovered in themoreecologically theevosophisticated studies ofJames C. Malin,in which lutionof "forest man" to "grassman" becomesthe central plot of GreatPlains in outward thanWebb's,but history.19 Malin's proseis far lessstory-like appearance and human it nonetheless narrates an encounter between a resistant environment whohaveno coningenuity. Malin's humanagents beginas struggling immigrants havebecome"grass ception ofhowto livein a treeless landscape;bytheend, they of men" who havebrought theirculture withthe requirements "intoconformity than disrupting environmental So completely maintaining rather equilibrium." thattheycan even"pointthe finger have theysucceededin adaptingthemselves of theforest ofscorn at thedeficiencies land; grassless, wet,withan acid, leached, that soil."20 infertile Human inhabitants have becomeone withan environment them. onlya fewdecadesbefore had almostdestroyed oftheregional enviThe beauty theharshness oftheseplotsis thatthey present in sucha wayas to makethehumanstruggle it appearevenmore ronment against in earlier narraascentportrayed frontier and heroic thanthecontinuous positive The focus ofourattention is stillrelatively boththegeotives. though small-scale, The story is now context oftheplothaveexpanded. and thechronological graphical or evenof of one family or town, muchmorea regional one, so thatthe histories ofthegrassthanthebroader Kansasor Oklahoma, becomelessimportant history so thatthehistory too has advanced, land environment as a whole.The timeframe Beon thePlainsmoves wellintothetwentieth of technological century. progress settlers thatEuroamerican at themoment beganto causetheplot stillcommences19Theseterms inMalin's America: magnum opus, James C. Malin,TheGrassland ofNorth appear, for instance, on virtually all of his work Prolegomena to Its History (Gloucester, Mass., 1967), but thisbasic notioninforms Historical Studies:NaturalResources Utilization in a Backthe grasslands. See alsoJamesC. Malin, Grassland of essays, JamesC. Malin,History groundofScienceand Technology (Lawrence, Kan., 1950); and the collection ed. RobertP. Swierenga (Lincoln,1984). and Ecology: Studiesof the Grassland, 20 Malin,Grassland ofNorthAmerica,154.


and Narrative History, Nature,

1357

ofthetime extension is no explicit backward there though, thegrasslands, occupy story. of this part is not Indians of the history The precontact frame. has becomesignificantly the humansubjectof thesestories Mostinterestingly, primarily thanfocus Rather histories. andlocalfrontier state thantheearlier broader studiescenter thesenewregional communities, and their pioneers on individual thatallowedpeople to adapt or "man."The inventions on "civilization" their story of "man"and story intothe broader to lifeon theGreatPlainsare thusabsorbed a central on so singular centered "his" long conquestof nature.No narrative yes, here:Indians, areat work Moreerasures innocent. couldbe politically character have that communities and anyother underclasses, ethnic groups, butalsowomen, The narrabyMan or Civilization. represented thecollectivity beensetapartfrom realmthatmightaptiveleaveslittleroomforthem,and evenlessfora natural abouta progress Thesearestories oftechnology. theconquests be spared propriately senseand areonlywhatcommon is fated;itsconquests however hard-earned, that, from ForWebb and Malin,theGreatPlainsgainsignificance wouldexpect. nature theentire in shape,that encompasses plot,Darwinian their tiestoa world-historical is in fact in thesestories The ascending plotlinewe detect sweepofhumanhistory. Whether characteristics. line same rising the with plot connected to a muchlonger Nation,the Rise of as the Makingof the American thatlonger plot is expressed or the Ascentof Man, it stilllendsits grandscale to Great Civilization, Western inform. Thismayexplain limited histories that appearmuchmore Plains outwardly subjectforfive whose principal a book by so entranced ourselves howwe can find of windmills and barbedwire. hundred pages is the invention falls one in which theplotultimately history, is another Butthere wayto tellthis or of whatwe mightcall a "declensionist" examples than rises.The first rather ofthe theDust Bowlcalamity beganto appearduring GreatPlainshistory ''tragic" of whathad gone wrongon the New Deal interpretation 1930s.The dominant thatwassometimes had been fooledbya climate perfectly Plainswasthatsettlers had inadequate.Settlement and at othertimesdisastrously adequateforfarming and theperennial wasabundant, optiwhenrainfall "good"years during expanded was thatdrought from acknowledging farmers had prevented mismofthefrontier becomes GreatPlainshistory oflifeon thePlains.In thisversion, fact a permanent to acceptreality. government and refusal Onlystrong hubris a taleofself-deluding to encourage among scientific cooperation experts plannedbyenlightened action, of the dust a return and future expansion couldprevent agricultural Plains farmers, storms. thatFranklin is thatofthecommittee narrative ofthis statement The classic early thecausesoftheDust Bowl,in its1936report to investigate D. Roosevelt appointed of the region's history up untilthe on TheFuture ofthe GreatPlains.Its version 1930srunsas follows: was communities inAmerican for come tolook which wehave Thesteady progress Plains Great the more of Instead to reverse itself. productive, becoming beginning


1358

History The Journal of American

March1992

Plains(1936). forTheFuture oftheGreat an illustration Great Plains ofthePast," "The pagesillustrate theNewDeal on thefollowing illustrations Thisanditscompanion in part, for this onereads, Plains. Thecaption story oftheGreat "Asthefirst slowly westward their covered wagons white settlers drove ..they found with harmony in rudebutproductive theRedManliving Nature."

standard of less so. Insteadof givingtheirpopulationa better werebecoming one. The people wereenergetic to givethema poorer they weretending living, wereincreasingly lesssecure land. Yet they and they lovedtheir and courageous,injt.2i

reversal ofthe thisunexpected for to locatethereason One did nothaveto lookfar adaptainprecisely theagricultural story. Plainssettlers hadfailed American success wouldhaveto be taken them.Radicalsteps tionsthatWebband Maimclaimedfor said the werenot to repeatitself."It became clear," if the Dust Bowl disaster21 1936),1. On thisreport, (Washington, PlainsCommittee Plains:Report oftheGreat oftheGreat TheFuture 6 (Spring1986),84-93. Great PlainsQuarterly, PlainsRe-Visited:' ofthe Great F. White,"TheFuture see Gilbert


Nature,History, and Narrative

1359

L

~

~

~

"TheGreat ofthePresent." Plains ofthe in part, first Theoriginal "TheWhite Man... cameas a conqueror caption was, then ofNature.... Theplough Nature's Indian, ignores 'KeepOff' signs; for fallintodecay." all thecourage oftheir communities, people,

owncontroversial their conclusions withthe settled planners, describing authority in theagricultural ofthepasttense, "that unlessthere wasa permanent change patternof thePlains,relief wouldhaveto be extended whenever the available always Whatever thescientific orpolitical merits ofthisdescription, consider itsnarrative in effect The New Deal planners implications. arguedthatthe rising plot line of our earlier storytellers not onlywas falsebut was itself the principal cause of the environmental disaster thatunfoldedduringthe 1930s.The Dust Bowl had occurred becausepeople had been telling themselves thewrong story and had tried22

rainfallwas deficient."22

Futureof the GreatPlains, 1.


1360

of American History TheJournal

March1992

"The GreatPlainsof the Future. The original captionwas,in part,"The land maybloom again ifman once moremakeshis peace withNature.Careful planting willgivehim backthe foothill trees; farms on scientifically selected sitesmayyield... ...fewer and larger a comfortable living.. .. This is no Utopiandream. It is a promise, to be realizedif we will."

to inscribe thatstoryon a landscapeincapableof supporting the frontierjt.23 The environmental rhythms ofthe Plainsecosystem werecyclical, withgood years and bad years following each other likewaves on a beach.The problem ofhuman settlement in theregion wasthatpeople insisted on imposing their linearnotions of progress on thiscyclical pattern. Theirperennial optimism led themalways to acceptas "normal" themostfavorable partof theprecipitation cycle, and so they created a type and scaleofagriculture thatcouldnotpossibly be sustained through23 Thisimage their ideology on an alienlandscape is one ofthecentral ofcolonial invaders seeking to "inscribe" Tzvetan Todorov, The ConquestofAmerica(New York,1984). notions of a fascinating monograph:



1361

In effect, the dryyears. bad storytelling had wreaked havocwiththe balanceof nature. the "plot"of GreatPlainshistory By thisinterpretation, risesas Euroamerican settlement begins, but theupward motionbecomes problematic as farmers exceed limits the the natural of ecosystem. Fromthatmoment forward, the story moves inwhich toward a climax thetragic flaws ofa self-deluding peoplefinally yieldcrisis and decline.Although the geographical and chronological frame of thisnarrative aremuchthesameas in theearlier progressive plots,thescenehas shifted dramatiForWebb and Malin,the Plainsenvironment cally. was resistant but changeable, so thatstruggle and ingenuity wouldfinally makeit conform to the humanwill. In thisearly NewDeal incarnation ofa pessimistic GreatPlainshistory, theenvironment wasnotonlyresistant but in somefundamental ways unchangeable. Itsmost important characteristics-cyclical drought and aridity-couldnot be alteredby humantechnology; they couldonlybe accommodated. If thestory wasstillabout humanbeingslearning to livein the grasslands, its ultimate messagewas about thewisdom to recognize and acceptnatural limits rather thanstrive gaining to overcomethem.Although thecloseoftheNew Deal committee's story stilllayin the in 1936,itsauthors future wasreleased whenitsreport intended to clearly readers to reject concludethatthe onlyappropriate endingwasforAmericans optimistic stories suchas Webb'sand Malin'sin favor of environmental restraint and sound management. The political ofthisstory isnothardtofind. theheroes subtext Whereas ofearlier GreatPlainsnarratives had been thecourageous and inventive poeple who settled the region, their so as to place themselves on the New Dealersconstructed stories love of were for all their and the center stage.Plainspeople, energy, courage, land, their incapable ofsolving ownproblems without help.Theyhad made sucha mess oftheir thatonlydisinterested environment theenlightened outsiders, offering perIn this theirownfolly. of scientific could savethemfrom spective management, is onlypartially forin facttheplanners still sense,the New Deal narrative tragic, a happyending.LikeWebb and Malin,they sawthehumanstory on the intended Plainsas a taleof adaptation, buttheir vision ofprogressive modernization ended in regional state Federal coordination and centralized wouldaid planning. planners in developing new cooperative institutions and a more suslocal communities ofPareLorentz's famous New to theland. Thiswastheconclusion tainable relation a seemingly ThePlowthat Broke thePlains(1936),in which Deal propaganda film, intervention. environmental reversed inevitable collapseis finally bygovernment individualism-would and state Technology, education, cooperation, power-not avert and thereby Plainssociety backintoorganic balancewithPlainsnature bring to producea happyending. tragedy on newmeaning. takes Malinwrote Seen in thislight, Malin's James storytelling ofeverything in thewakeoftheNewDeal and wasa staunch conservative opponent hisownhorror ofcolitrepresented. His narratives ofregional adaptation expressed he turn.The planners, at virtually theNew Deal story lectivism byresisting every ends their ownstatist theseverity ofthe Dust Bowlto serve said, had exaggerated


1362


1992 March

had beena natural partofthePlainsenvithatduststorms thefact andhad ignored had faith in ecology Theirscientistic remembered. as farbackas anyone ronment the in viewing goneastray had themselves for theecologists dangers, political grave humanaction in which organism self-equilibrating as a stable, Plainsenvironment and so was weredynamic, Ecosystems the balanceofnature.24 disturbed inevitably set insurmountable that nature to assert progress: oftechnological thehumanstory history. sweepofcivilized thewholeupward wasto deny to humaningenuity limits metaphoriwere and society in which nature forstories The New Dealers'affection and their to individualism ownhostility their onlyrevealed callycastas organisms "along Malindeclared, ofthestate."Scientism," notions withcommunist flirtation freedom."25 thatthreaten have becomemajorsocialmyths withstatism, inhabienvironment forcing IftheNew Dealers'GreatPlainswasa constrained possibilities, Malin'swas a landscapeof multiple limits, tants to acceptitsnatural The story of the one began in balance,movedinto a stageforhumanfreedom. The plannedsociety. balanceofa scientifically tothewiser chaos,and thenreturned wholebut expressed return to an organic had no suchprophetic oftheother story ofhuman thelongmarch thatcontinued ofreadaptation process a constant instead In bothcases,the shapeof thatwasthecoreplot of Malin'shistory. improvement setwithin it and so bethatwere to thehumannarratives conformed thelandscape Malin's contested each other. different politics upon whichtheir came the terrain intograssland freedom led himto probemoredeeply to individualist commitment in an effort humanpossito find him,butalways before thananyhistorian ecology wasan envihe for his limits. The scene constructed story thannatural bilities rather interbureaucrats wellto humanneedsunlessmisguided thatresponded ronment to the land. to adapt themselves fered withpeople'sefforts The Paul Bonnifield's thatinforms Malin'santi-NewDeal narrative It isJames of in thelate 1970s,at a timewhenconservative critiques the Dust Bowl.Writing of American feature politicaldiscourse, a dominant statewerebecoming welfare thanMalin,buthe tellsessentially lessurgently and polemically Bonnifield argues to thepeople Forhim,the GreatPlainsdid pose specialproblems thesamestory. than more with those successfully problems whosettled butno one grappled there, notgovernment When theDust Bowlhit,it wasthepeople who livedthere, they. New thatsolvedearlier newland-usepractices problems. who invented scientists, littleabout the regionand wereso caughtup in their understood Deal planners vision to imposetheir itsproblems thatthey bytrying ownideology compounded of a plannedsociety. Bonnifield to come up withtheirown solutions, Rather than allow residents theirland. from farmers meanspossibleto drive used every argues,the planners ofthePlains,butto solve theenvironmental problems Theydid thisnotto address this To justify ofwheat. thenational ofreducing overproduction their ownproblem as "defeated, Plains inhabitants people poverty-ridden deceit,theycaricatured BrokethePlainsand theFarm as ThePlowthat without hope" in suchpropaganda24 On Savingthe itself, see RonaldC. Tobey, the scienceof ecology the role of the Dust Bowlin reshaping (Berkeley, PlantEcology, 1895-1955 1981). School ofAmerican Prairies: TheLife Cycleof the Founding 25 Malin, Grassland ofNorthAmerica,168.


andNarrative Nature, History,

1363

ofenvironmental mini-narratives withtheir Security Administration photographs, In fact,Bonnifield and social despair.26 argues,the Plainscontained destruction but ultisoil in the world.The landscapewas difficult some of the bestfarming problem upon it. Theirchief mately benignforpeople who could learnto thrive The narrative echoesMalin's was less a hostilenature than a hostilegovernment. whenplaced at the force kindofideological scenic landscapebut gainsa different - in thewaning administration years oftheCarter moment ofitsnarration historical as Bonnifield's is a tale election president. triumphant to RonaldReagan's justprior offtheirbacks. folkneedingnothing so muchas to get government of ordinary critic ofa conservative Dust Bowlnarrative theoptimistic IfBonnifield elaborates returns to the New Deal plot and deepensits of the New Deal, Donald Worster narrator who is withWebb the mostpowerful among Worster, tragic possibilities. - the refusal of of Roosevelt's planners thesewriters, acceptsthe basicframework conenvironmental to recognizeand accept cyclical Americans linear-minded - but he shears expandsits cultural bias and considerably awayits statist straints of the history of the New Deal tale was to remove One consequence boundaries. the region ascentofcivilization; itsrolein thelong-term instead, the Plainsfrom on the an unfortunate thatimposedunusualconstraints becamemerely anomaly of American life.Worster this rejects thatwas otherwise typical "steady progress" a paradigthatthePlainswereactually instead and argues reading ofPlainshistory thatmightbe called "the riseand fallof capitalism." story maticcase in a larger limits is one ofthedefining characnatural ForWorster, therefusal to recognize in He is therefore drawnto a narrative ethosand economy. teristics of a capitalist forWebb and Malin becomesigns thatbetokened whichthe same facts progress The ofcapitalist contradictions expansion. ofdeclension and ofthe compounding isworld thistimetheplotleadstoward catastrophe: sceneofthestory historical, only in American, in world, crisis indeed, werea timeof great Thatthe thirties I an The was part of Bowl, believe, haslongbeen obvious fact. Dust capitalism of the theexpansionary United that samecrisis. It cameaboutbecause energy a volatile, thedelicate had finally encountered States marginal land,destroying andplows on the that hadevolved there. offarmers Wespeak balance ecological brought is inadequate. What language and the they did, but the damage plains a setofvalues, an economic order. There wasa social them totheregion system, . . . Capitalism, as "capitalism." sums up those elements that so fully is noword in this nation's use ofnature.27 hasbeenthedecisive factor itis mycontention, is not"thepioneers" or"civilization" thechief agentofthestory Bythisreading, The plotleadsfrom theorigins ofthateconomic system, or "man";it is capitalism. the future when the a seriesof crises, toward environmental cataclysm through an interThe taleofWorster's Dust Bowlthusconcerns willfinally collapse. system an yetto come; in this,it proclaims othercrises thatforeshadows mediatecrisis theprophecy ofprogress foundin earlier frontier thatinverts prophecy apocalyptic that ironic, for itimplies story is deeply inversion ofthefrontier Worster's narratives.26 27

The Dust Bowl, 202. Bonnifield, Worster, Dust Bowl, 5.


1364


March 1992

the increasing technological "control" represented byWebb'sand Malin'shuman He also breaks rank with ingenuity leadsonly toward an escalating spiral ofdisasters. at solving theproblems theNew Dealersat thispoint,forin hisviewtheir efforts ofcapitalism itself. oftheDust Bowldid nothing toaddress thebasiccontradictions ForWorster, economy thathad proved the planners "proppedup an agricultural itself to be socially and ecologically erosive."28 howmuchhisbasicplotdiffers Given from thesceneWorster Webb'sand Malin's, SinceWorster's story conconstructs for hisnarrative mustdiffer justas dramatically. cerns story the destruction of an entire ecosystem, it mustend wherethefrontier His plotmustmovedownward an ecological toward disaster began:in a wasteland. beginin a negatively valued calledtheDust Bowl.Whereas thefrontier narratives landscape and end in a positive one,Worster begins histalein a placewhosenarrativevalueis entirely comgood. His grasslands are "an old and unique ecological to achieve, "determining by plex"thatnature had struggled formillions of years trial and error what Deliofthegood earth."29 wouldflourish bestin thisdry corner livingalwayson the edge of cate and beautiful, the Plains werean ecosystem and their that survival and animals webofplants drought, dependedon an intricate thanthatofthemarketcapitalism wasincapableofvaluing byanystandard other place. Fromthisbeginning, the story movesdowna slope thatends in the dust ofhuman storms whosenarrative possiblesymbol roleis to standas themostvivid from alienation nature. narrators chooseas The very different scenesthatprogressive and declensionist thesettings for Plainshistories us toanother observation about their Great key bring profoundly alters its narrative itself: whereone choosesto beginand end a story is not,after shapeand meaning. Worster's all, theonlypossibleplotthatcan organize GreatPlainshistory intoa taleofcrisis and decline.Becausehismetanarrative likethatof the has to do withthepast and future of capitalism, his timeframe, moment frontier remains tied to the startof whitesettlement-the storytellers, when the American or declinebeginsits upwardor downward plot of progress he he acknowledges of Indiansin theregion, theprior sweep.Although presence to hisnarrative. This devotes onlya few pagesto them.Theyare clearly peripheral thathaveas much is trueof all the stories thusfar, forreasons we have examined In their to meetthe efforts to do withnarrative rhetoric as withhistorical analysis. a clear and narrative a well-told tale- organic unity, focus, requirements thatdefine - these earto sayabouttheregion's havelittle the"relevant" details historians only halfof myoriginal the entire first lierhumaninhabitants. Theytherefore ignore If time frames to enwe shift in chronicle events" Great Plains of "key history. a new set of narratives, encounter the Indianpast,we suddenly equally compass in plot and different in theirsenseof crisis and declension, but strikingly tragic the past to reframe offer further of the narrative scene.As such,they power proof the redefine exclude and events and so as toinclude certain others, meaning people, of landscapeaccordingly.Ibid. 163. 29Ibid., 66.28



1365

in thepassingreferences and exclusion of inclusion thisprocess One can detect of Indians. less maketo theprior, happystories narrators frontier thatprogressive as in theclassic is elegiacand melancholy, thetoneofsuchreferences Sometimes, As Webbput dismissive. thetoneis simply race";sometimes imageofa "vanishing was nowhere and "whenthere of savagery," it, "The PlainsIndiansweresurvivals If reservations."30 the to settledown on else to push themtheywerepermitted deathor removal thenso too was the eventual changewas inevitable, progressive ofthenarrarequirement is thusa necessary oftheIndians.Theirmarginalization ofthis indicator as the bestscenic thatserved oftheenvironment The feature tive. crucial most the was among whose destruction bison, wastheAmerican inevitability disposed favorably Evenifone did notfeel Indiansubsistence. in undermining steps Indians,one could stillmournthe bison.Webb again: "The GreatPlains toward thatthemost and itwasthere in America, grounds hunting thelastvirgin afforded ofthewhite advance the against stand last its made animal American characteristic man'scivilization."'31 devices, framing are essentially to Indian"pre-history" references Thesepassing dramathatis soon ofwhichis to setthestageforthemoreimportant thepurpose almost narratives on Indiansin their morecentrally whofocus Historians to follow. thusfar. the ones I have described plotsfrom different very construct inevitably Although White.32 is Richard one of themostsophisticated Amongsuchscholars, thelandofcapitalism, abouttheexpansion toocan be seenas a metaplot hiswork history, of Pawnee narrative White's stories. byIndian is defined scapehe constructs on the eastern beginswitha people livingin the mixedgrasslands forinstance, cycleof shifting in a seasonally of the Plains, dividingtheiractivities margins plot, ofa declensionist As onewouldexpect and bisonhunting. gathering, farming, occasionally despite landscape, fruitful and a benign the initialsceneis basically Eurowith encounter begantheir thatthePawnees Atthemoment droughts. severe - the thenwiththefurtrade of thehorse, - first withthe arrival culture american In narrative subsistence. thema comfortable was furnishing Plainsenvironment home. its meaningwas thatof a much-loved terms, the steadyerosionof the records line of White's narrative The downward The expopulation. wipedoutmuchoftheir disease European landscape. Pawnees' forthemto huntbisonand raisecrops.As made it harder pandingSioux tribes ofPawnee underpinnings and spiritual thematerial becamemoredifficult, hunting and bythe in crisis, Pawneelifewasincreasingly beganto disintegrate. subsistence destroyed-thetribewas forcedto 1870s-when the great herds were finally ends The story to IndianTerritory. homelandand remove abandonitstraditional the to leave decided Pawnees the "When ofexodusand despair: tragedy as a classicthatin somesense 31 Ibid., 509. Fora similar Indianworld ofan earlier as thesymbol use ofthe bisonstory and Nature's seeWilliamCronon, Chicago Metropolis: century, ofthenineteenth thelastthird during "vanished" (New York,1991),213-18. the GreatWest and Social Change among the Environment, 32 Richard White, The Roots of Dependency:Subsistence, and Navajos (Lincoln,1983), 147-211. Pawnees, Choctaws,30 Webb, GreatPlains,508.


1366


March 1992

LoupValley, itwasin thehopethatto thesouthin Indianterritory laya landwhere they couldhuntthebuffalo, grow corn, and lettheold life oftheearthlodges flower thereach beyond oftheSiouxand American settlers."33 thishopedUnfortunately, forendingto the Pawneestory wouldnever be achieved, becausethe sceneit requiredno longer existed. As Whitesays,"Sucha land had disappeared forever."34 The frame of thisstory differs from anything we haveseen thusfar.It ends at themoment mostoftheother plotsbegin.It starts muchfurther backin time,as European animalsand tradegoodsbeginto changethe Plainslandscape, offering opportunities and improvements in Pawnee life.Eventually a downward spiral and the tragedy of thenarrative begins, becomesunrelenting as thePawnees lose control oftheir familiar world. As for thesceneofthis plot,wehavealready encounit in a different tered guise.The "wilderness" in which theprogressive frontier narrators begintheir stories is nothing lessthanthedestroyed remnant ofthePawnees' home. It is less a wasteland thana land thathas been wasted. Narratives ofthissort arebyno meanslimited to white historians. Plenty Coups, a CrowIndianchief, tellsin his 1930autobiography ofa boyhood visionsenthim theChickadee. In thedream, byhisanimalHelper, a great storm blown bytheFour Windsdestroyed a vastforest, leavingstanding onlythe singletreein whichthe - smallest - made itslodge. The tribal Chickadee but shrewdest of animals elders interpreted thisto mean thatwhitesettlers wouldeventually destroy notonlythe buffalo butalsoall tribes whoresisted theAmerican On thebasisofthis onslaught. prophetic dream, theCrows decidedto allythemselves withtheUnitedStates, and so they managedto preserve a portion of their homelands.Savingtheir land did notsparethem from thedestruction ofthebisonherds, however, and so they shared withotherPlainstribes the lossof subsistence and spiritual communion thathad previously been integral to the hunt.As Plenty Coups remarks at the end of his "whenthebuffalo story, wentaway thehearts ofmypeoplefellto theground, and could not liftthemup again. After they thisnothing happened."35 Fewremarks more powerfully theimportance capture ofnarrative to history than thislastofPlenty Coups: "After thisnothing happened." as for FortheCrows other Plainstribes, theuniverse revolved around thebisonherds, and life madesenseonly so long as the huntcontinued. When the sceneshifted-whenthe bisonherds went away" thatuniverse collapsedand history ended. Although theCrows continuedto liveon their reservation and although their as a peoplehas never identity ceased,forPlenty Coups their lifeis all partofa different subsequent The story.36 he lovedbestendedwiththe buffalo. story thathas happenedsinceis Everything partof someotherplot, and thereis neither sensenorjoy in telling it.Ibid. Frank Linderman, Plenty-coups: Chiefof the Crows (1930; reprint, Lincoln,1962), 311. 36 The danger in thewayPlenty Coups endshisstory, and in Richard White'sendingas well,is thattheclose of thesetragic narratives can all too easilybe takenas the end of their protagonists' The notion cultural history. thatIndianhistories cometo an end is amongthe classic imperialist ofthe frontier, wherein a "vanishing myths race""melts away" before theadvancing forces of"civilization." Plenty Coups'sdeclaration that"after thisnothing happened" conveys with great power thetragedy ofan olderIndiangeneration but says nothing aboutthegenerationsof Indianswho stilllivewithin the shadowof thatnarrative punctuation mark.3435

33White, RootsofDependency, 211.



1367

suggests justhowcompletely Coups'sstory at theend ofPlenty The nothingness of natureto fit of thepast and the landscapes theevents can redefine a narrative notthe progress, happened:not frontier thisnothing theneedsof itsplot. After to an aridland, not the Dust Bowl.Justthe nothingness of adaptation challenge me backtotheplace thatcarries nothingness It is this theendofa story. that follows I began,to myownawareness of a paradoxat theheartof myintellectual where wouldbe historians On theone hand,mostenvironmental as an historian. practice world to anyunofthenonhuman in asserting theimportance quitecomfortable thanhuof the humanpast. Mostwould arguethatnatureis larger derstanding impinges that it culture, ofhuman an invention thatit is not completely manity, and thatourtask thatitis "real," control, in ways completely we cannot on ourlives us and vice versa.Black clouds the wayit affects as historians is to understand itself as sod offering from theKansassky, overturned dustand darkness bringing grasses, prairie of dying torn roots amid the sprouting a seedbedforalien grains linger and vultures withthestench ofrotting as wolves bisonflesh windsfilled dry overtheir theseare morethanjust stories. feasts: all our despite arehumaninventions too.As such,they -they arestories Andyet human rhetoric and much to belong as They "naturalness." their to preserve efforts It is forthisreasonthatwe cannot escapeconand nature. discourse as to ecology tounderstand in ourefforts narratives competing ofmultiple thechallenge fronting ofGreatPlainshistory sugand thehumanpast.As I hope myreading bothnature from the environto us. apart havemuch teach Quite thenarrative theorists gests, have becomeinexthatnatureand culture premise analytical mentalhistorian's of the rhetorical in their practice of mutualreshaping, process entangled tricably thatare us to narrative oftalking aboutnature commits ways history environmental that Ifwe failto reflect on theplotsand scenesand tropes but "natural." anything thatlies at thehumanartifice we runtheriskofmissing ourhistories, undergird of narratives. the heartof eventhe most"natural" would ofmyGreatPlainschronicle As theevidence Andjustwhatis a narrative? to narrative, To shift from chronicle a sequenceof events. it is not merely imply, as Aristotle so that, said,it "has mustbe structured a taleofenvironmental change from other forms ofdisstories and end."37 Whatdistinguishes middle, beginning, overa well-defined an actionthatbegins,continues courseis thattheydescribe thatbecome withconsequences to a definite close, and finally draws oftime, period action gives Completed within thenarrative. placement oftheir because meaningful The moral and judgean actbyitsresults. us to evaluate a story itsunity and allows "the end is everywhere remarked, of a story is defined byitsending:as Aristotle the chief thing."38 and thishas important humanwayoforganizing is a peculiarly Narrative reality, of environmental the history change.Some forthe waywe approach implicationsBarnes ed.Jonathan Oxford TheRevised ofAristotle: in TheCompleteWorks Translation, 37Aristotle,Poetics, 1984),II, 2321. (2 vols.,Princeton, Senseofan see Kermode, unity, 38 Ibid On theimportance itsconfigured endingin determining ofa story's 1975). andMethod(New York, Intention W. Said,Beginnings: Edward with combined canbe usefully Ending;this


1368


March 1992

to theAristotelian thatconform can be said to haveproperties nonhuman events organism as whenan individual ofstorytelling, requirement beginning-middle-end and itself) is born,persists, rangeor eventheuniverse (or a speciesor a mountain biologists -geologists and evolutionary aboutsuchthings dies.One can tellstories a judgeable having dramathatcomesfrom often do - butthey lackthecompelling questions of without raising usually"justhappen," protagonist. Thingsin nature Some are lackeventhismuchlinearstructure. events moralchoice.Manynatural fertility ofbiological theseasons, ortherhythms oftheplanets, cyclical: themotions mutashifts, earthquakes, genetic and reproduction. Others are random:climate hiddenfrom us. One does not and other events thecausesofwhichremain tions, hiswithnarrative plots,and yetenvironmental describe suchthings automatically to setthe humanpast in itsnatural context, all haveplots. whichpurport tories, do not tell stories; we do. Whyis this? Natureand the universe to thisquestionemerge from thework thatphilosophers Twopossibleanswers narrative between havedoneon therelationship andpost-structuralist literary critics which and history. One group, includes HaydenWhiteand thelate LouisMinkas narrative is so basictoourcultural wellas many ofthedeconstructionists, argues that or no relation thatbearslittle thatwe automatically beliefs imposeit on a reality ourexperience.39 Minksummarizes thisposition to theplotswe use in organizing The samecouldpresumably story." that"thepastisnotan untold nicely byasserting The on a worldthatdoesn'tfitthem.40 we force our stories be said about nature: oreven them"truly" and representing ofrecovering pastrealities historian's project within ournarrative we couldnotdo discourse, is thusa delusion.Trapped "fairly" how hardwe tried-presuming, to natureor to the past no matter justiceeither or "thepast" evenexistat all. of course, that"nature" demostrecently defended byDavid Carrbutoriginally An alternative position, to narrative is thatalthough maynot be intrinsic velopedby MartinHeidegger, to thewaywe humansorganize in thephysical it is fundamental events universe, on thethings oftheuniverse going ourexperience. Whatever maybe theperspective storied world. an endlessly is thatwe inhabit on aroundus, ourhumanperspective to explore thealterofourpasts. thetriumphs Wetellstories andfailures Wenarrate Ourvery habitofparorhoped-for futures. might lead to feared native choices that withtheir of timeinto "events," middles, impliedbeginnings, the flow titioning in ourexperience of inheres structure howdeeplythe narrative and ends,suggests successful a possibly is not merely the world.As Carrputs it, "Narrative wayof Farfrom in theevents themselves. inheres itsstructure beinga events; describinga Instrument"; Formas Cognitive Mink,"Narrative 39 See White,Tropics ofDiscourse;White,Metahistory; Timeand Narrative, inRicoeur, canbe found conclusion a similar leadstoward ultimately that position lessextreme in Contemofthesedebates,see HaydenWhite,"The QuestionofNarrative ifbiased,explication I. Fora useful, can be foundin Martin, 23 (no. 1, 1984), 1-33. A valuablesurvey and Theory, History Theory," Historical porary ofNarrative. RecentTheories Linguistic T. Vann,"LouisMink's 148. See also Richard Instrument," Formas Cognitive 40 Mink,"Narrative 26 (no. 1, 1987), 14. and Theory, History Turn,"


andNarrative Nature, History,

1369

is an extension account ofone it relates, a narrative oftheevents formal distortion features."41 of their primary sinceit argues to mosthistorians, Carr's willundoubtedly be attractive position reflect one of the mostfundamental our narratives beingarbitrary, that, farfrom thelessons It also givesus a wayof absorbing properties ofhumanconsciousness. reality. wehaveabandonedall tiesto an external ofnarrative without feeling theory their livesto make organizing willsintothefuture, their Insofar as people project - tojustthat inthepresent livetheir extent, they results future acts yield predictable tell truethatwe all constantly It is undoubtedly were telling a story. lives as ifthey and whowe are,howwegotto be thatperson, ourselves stories to remind ourselves butofcommuniwewant to become.The sameis truenotjustofindividuals what just as we use our ourselves, to remember we use our histories tiesand societies: As Plenty whatwe do ordo notwishto become.42 exploring prophecies as toolsfor about the the narratives people tell themselves implies,to recover Coups'sstory and about pastactions livesis to learna greatdeal about their meanings of their ofunderofthestory, welosetrack theway those actions. Stripped understand they standing itself. histories so environmental suggests why The storied ofhumanexperience reality center on and also whythoseplotsalmostalways findplotsin nature consistently within itsboundaries thetaskofincluding history setsitself people.Environmental humanagents and yet histories, far world thanmostother moreofthenonhuman havebeen occurring Dust storms ofitsnarratives. continue to be themainanchors careabout-those we now on the Plainsformillennia, and yetthe oneswe really into transform thetitle"Dust Bowl" aretheoneswe canmosteasily narrate under orvillains ofthepiece.In this, inwhich orvictims stories people becometheheroes thannottreat people whomoreoften from ecologists, differ historians consistently ifat all intothetheoretical modelsofthe as exogenous thatfit awkwardly variables and The historian's is quite opposite.The chiefprotagonists tendency discipline. thatgo to thevery ofourstories arealmostalways human,forreasons antagonists impulse. heartof our narrative fixed on people because of the GreatPlainsenvironment remain Our histories for is itsmeaning humanbeings. We careabout what wemostcareaboutin nature in the face of humanendurance the duststorms becausetheystandas a symbol in ofnatural the face ofnatural of irresponsibility symbol human as a adversity-or thatin turn provide valuesin nature create and conflicts fragility. Humaninterests environmental whether change themoralcenter forour stories. We wantto know41 David Carr, 25 (no. 2, and Theory, History forContinuity," and theReal World:An Argument "Narrative 1986), 117. that argument 42 See Robert 97 (Nov. 1983),3-68. Carr's Review, HarvardLaw "Nomosand Narrative," Cover, correlation is no necessary claim,thatthere a deeperrelativist does notaddress is narrated all humanexperience thoselives.On tellin reconstructing historians ownlivesand thestories people tellin their between the stories 27 (no. History and Theory, byDavid Carr, and History of Time,Narrative, review thisissue,see Noel Carroll, 3, 1988), 297-306.


1370


1992 March

byreferring toourownsense isgoodorbad,and thatquestion canonlybe answered muteaboutsuchmatters. However passionately ofright and wrong. Nature remains wemay careaboutthenonhuman however muchwemaybelieve in itsinnate world, foworld, remain worth, ourhistorical narratives, eventhoseaboutthenonhuman the meanings cusedon a humanstruggle overvalues.If thesevaluesare in effect - nonhuman unwe attachto judgeable human actions actionsbeing generally will remainfocusedon human judgeable by us- thenthe center of our stories humanacts,and humanvalues. thoughts, - unlike of actions thatnarratives It is becausewe careabout theconsequences middles, and ends. Stories are intrinsimostnatural processes -have beginnings, in which is explained bytheprior events orcauses cally teleological forms, an event thatlead up to it. Thisaccounts thatall theseGreatPlainshistories for one feature - its scene have in common:all are designedso thatthe plot and its changing end ofthestory. In themostextreme cases, environment -flow toward theultimate ifthetaleis ofprogress, landscape is a garden; ifthetaleis ofcrisis thentheclosing is a and decline,theclosing locatedin thepastor thefuture) landscape(whether As wasteland. an obvious ofthisnarrative important consequence requirebutvery from closingones to makethe plot ment,openinglandscapes mustbe different A trackless work. waste mustbecomea grassland civilization. Or: a fragile ecosystem us our mustbecomea Dust Bowl.The difference between beginning and end gives takechanges chance to extract a moral from Ournarratives therhetorical landscape. in theland and situate we wish whoseendings becomethelessons themin stories to drawfrom thosechanges. to However it creates, thiscommitment problems seriousthe epistemological moral center. and narrative environmental history-allhistory-its teleology gives valuedin Becausestories of actions thatare potentially concern theconsequences no neuoraudience, wecanachieve whether narrator, quitedifferent ways, byagent, in writing as they tralobjectivity them.Historians to be as fair maystrive can, but the sameevias thesePlainsexamples it remains demonstrate, possibleto narrate we too- as dence in radically different ways.Withinthe fieldof our narratives - aremoral ourselves As storytellers wecommit and political actors. narrators agents the to understand to thetaskofjudgingtheconsequences ofhumanactions, trying thefull so as to capture choices thatconfronted thepeople whoseliveswe narrate In thedilemmas ourown,and at the tumult oftheir world. facedwe discover they If our goal is to tell tales intersection of the twowe locatethemoralof thestory. overthe values thatmakethepastmeaningful, thenwe cannotescapestruggling thatdefine whatmeaningis. and narratives This visionof history as an endlessstruggle amongcompeting are we to chooseamong valuesmaynot seem very How,forinstance, reassuring. Thisis the valuesseemcapableofgenerating? theinfinite stories thatourdifferent Great Plains the different the intersections of lurks so threateningly at that question malleablein the Arenature and thepastinfinitely histories we haveencountered. thatmanyhistorians faceofour ability to tellstories about them?The uneasiness comesdownto thisbasicconcern, feelin confronting thepostmodernist challenge



1371

If our foundations of our enterprise. whichpotentially seemsto shakethe very version ofreality ourpower to imposeourpreferred choice ofnarratives reflects only us, thenwhatis leftof history?43 on a pastthatcannotresist aboutthepast ofcourse, do notbelieve thatall stories Most practicing historians, why one is better areequallygood,evenifwe arenotvery articulate in explaining goodhistory when wejustdeclare thatwerecognize orworse thananother. Usually to helpdefine what wesee it. Ifpressed, wemayperhaps offer a few rulesofthumb thatexwe arelooking for.Somemight arguefordepth,saying thatthenarrative and amin itssuggestions aboutpastcauses,meanings, plainsmore, thatis richer is thebetter seekbreadth, thehistorical preferring history. Others might biguities, detailswithout conthe largest numberof relevant narrative thataccommodates well Then again,lessmaybe more:A simplestory tradicting anyrelevant facts.44 toldmayreveal far moreabouta pastworld text thatnever finds thana complicated surely, whenit inis another virtue: a history is better, itsowncenter. Inclusiveness of past human to reflect the diversity corporates manydifferent voicesand events is moreimportant: we mightdemandof good experiences. But maybecoherence no unnecessary that itscomponents be tightly enough linked that itcontains history lestwe call it antiquarian. We mightask thata good partsor extraneous details, thefullhistoriographical liesbehind itwhilesimultanetradition that history reflect theboundaries a subtle ofthattradition. want ittooffer We ofcourse ously pushing and original ofprimary sources. It shouldsurprise us with newperspectives reading and interpretations. a good read.And We wouldprefer thatit be lucid,engaging, so the listgoes on. All of theseare plausiblecriteria, playa and mostof us wouldagreethatthey whenwe see it. The trouble, obviously, good history partin helpingus recognize and can all too easilybecome objectsof disagreement is that theythemselves that ofaesthetic of themreflect thesamesorts judgments struggle. Indeed,many fictional or or nonhistorical, historical we makewhenencountering anynarrative, muchin deciding It is not at all clearthattheywouldhelp us very nonfictional. narrator of or Bonnifield or Plenty whether Webb or Worster Coups is the better merits ofhistorical Ifthecriteria weusein deciding therelative Plainshistory. Great as thenarratives themselves, areopentothesamesorts ofvaluejudgments narratives has posedfor thatpostmodernist thenwehavehardly theory escapedthedilemma in an endlesssea of stories. us. We seemstillto be rudderless about I shouldprobably confess Before myownuncertainty goinganyfurther, wrote this it might be. I first from hereto a safeharbor, wherever howto navigate thatposttherichinsights to acknowledge five essaynearly years ago in an effort I assembled discourse. of narrative modernism has givenus into the complexities43 Thisquestion, That NobleDream: The"ObNovick, is thechief topicofPeter in a somewhat different form, Historical and theAmerican Eng., 1988). Profession (Cambridge, Question" jectivity mustinclude narratives here.To saythathistorical there are deep problems mostofthesecriteria, 44 As with for thetoolwe use to define question, facts begsthemostimportant no relevant details and contradict all relevant Onlythestory can tellus. To story? factbelongto thisparticular itself. Does thisparticular is narrative relevance ownplot- is to - the relevance is defined bythenarrative's ofwhich to includefacts byitsability testa narrative into tautology. slide rapidly


1372


March 1992

a small collection ofstories abouttheGreat Plainstoseewhat narrative theory might tellme aboutthewaythosestories shapeour senseof a landscape and thepeople wholiveupon it. The exercise persuaded me thatplotand sceneand character, beginnings and middlesand ends,therhetoric ofstorytelling, the different agendas ofnarrators and readers, all permeate ouractivities as historians. To denytherichnessofthis insight wouldbe an evasion ofself-knowledge, a willful refusal to recognize the powerand the paradoxes thatflow from our narrative discourse. And yetdespite whatI havelearned in writing thisessay, it has also been a frustrating struggle, becauseI, likemost practicing historians, am only willing tofollow thepostmodernists The essay so far. has gonethrough fourradically different versions, eachwith a different title, eachtrying to makea different kindofpeace with the dilemmas theseGreatPlainshistories pose. Mygoal throughout has been to theimmense acknowledge power ofnarrative whilestilldefending thepast(and nature)as real things to whichour storytelling mustsomehow conform lestit cease being history altogether. Alas,I shared eachnewversion oftheessay with a different groupof readers and critics, and each timethey persuaded me thatmyefforts to find safe harbor had failed. Eachnewversion oftheessay, and eachletter and conversation thatcritiqued me towhere it,returned I began:eachbecamea different story aboutthe meaningofstories, a different argument does and abouthownarrative does not ground in nature itself in other and thepast.The essay, words, recapitulated the very problems it set out to solve. Butperhaps there lieshiddenin thisseemingly fact a partial solution frustrating to thenarrative in this dilemma.(Watch:I try one moretackto seeksomeshelter rhetorical storm.) The sameprocess of criticism thatshapedthe different versions ofthisessay theproduction The stoofall historical texts. typifies and consumption rieswe tellabout thepastdo not exist in a vacuum, and our storytelling practice is boundedin at leastthree that limit cannot contraways itspower. ourstories First, veneknown facts aboutthepast. Thisis so mucha truism of traditional historical methodthatwe rarely bother evento stateit, but it is crucialifwe wishto deny all narratives that do an equallygoodjob ofrepresenting thepast.Atthemostbasic wejudge a work level, bad history ifit contradicts weknowto be accurate evidence and true.Good history does not knowingly lie. A history of the GreatPlainsthat narrated a story of continuous progress once mentioning the Dust Bowl without wouldinstantly be suspect, as woulda history ofJews of the Nazi treatment that failedto mention the concentration narratives are boundedat camps.Historical in their turnbythe evidence every can and cannotmuster own support. they constraints: our Environmental historians embrace a secondsetofnarrative given our stories faith thatthenatural world transcends our narrative ultimately power, must makeecological sense.You can'tput dustin theair-or tellstories aboutputhistories environmental Eventhough tingdustin theair-if thedustisn'tthere.45 and scenes of human the transform into the ecosystems narratives, biological geolognarlimits towhatconstitutes a plausible icalprocesses setfundamental oftheearth45

I borrow thislovely from a remark of Patricia epigram Limerick's.


and Narrative Nature, History,

1373

but natural ones: facts of the 1930sare not justhistorical rative. The duststorms ecosystem-its soils,itsvegetation, response of an entire they reflect thecomplex - to humanactions. itsanimals, itsclimate Insofar as we canknow them, to exclude another kind kindoffalse silence, "facts" wouldbe another orobscure these natural of lying. ofthissort, we face to "natural" events narrative meaning In choosing to assign is a good orbad a duststorm a specialproblem, for nature doesnottellus whether subjects in lacking most other historical wecan do that. Natureis unlike thing; only can ascribe to the a clearvoiceofitsown.The very fact thatGreatPlainshistorians is one consequence of thislackof voice. samelandscapesuch different meanings ishardly haverealconseactions nature silent. No matter whatpeopledo, their Still, forpeople. In narhaverealconsequences justas natural events quencesin nature, to interpret theirmeaningaccording we inevitably ratingthose consequences, - buttheconsequences choiceas our areas muchnature's themselves humanvalues and a Worster ourstories. A Bonnifield nature coauthors own.To justthatextent, can denythe theDust Bowl,but neither different lessons from maydrawradically so far. does not extendnearly The powerof narrative greatstorms themselves. in a thirdimportant as well. -way narratives are constrained historical Finally, as members ofcommunities, Historians do nottellstories We write bythemselves. intoaccountas we do our work. and we cannothelp but takethosecommunities academic, beingan upper-middle-class BeingAmerican, beingmale,beingwhite, I write in particular waysthatare not all of myown beingan environmentalist, I write in mywork. also But beinga scholar, choosing, and mybiasesarereflected - some very me in theirbackfrom fora community of otherscholars different as muchaboutmysubjectas I do. Theyare grounds and biases-who knownearly inin a position and wrong-headed me of the excluded facts to remind instantly havekeptme and lackof diligence thatmyown bias, self-delusion, terpretations from acknowledging. in otherwords, but as The stories we write, are judged not just as narratives, willevaluate their accuracy, thatscholars themknowing nonfictions. We construct who have a and knowing too thatmanyotherpeople and communities-those in thewaythepastis described and truth -will alsojudgethefairness present stake ofwhatwe say.Becauseourreaders havethe skillto knowwhatis notin a textas in deciding whether a fact does afford to be arbitrary wellas whatis in it,we cannot - a bemusedcolor does not belongin our stories. Someoneamongour readers us of our inform -will eventually a woundedvictim partisan, league, an angry such a but construct of will not bother to critique, plenty course, failings. Nature, havedone.We thereas weourselves ofothers willstepforward tospeakon itsbehalf and to fit to absorbcontradictory forestruggle to anticipate accounts, criticisms, can sometimes know aboutoursubject.Criticism ournarratives to whatwe already a story, do moreharm thangood-sapping thelifefrom strong arguments burying ofnew at theexpense wisdom conventional beneath caveats, reinforcing nitpicking - butitcanalsokeepus honest orradical and murdering byforcing passion insights, with We tell stories us to confront evidenceand counternarratives. contradictory


1374


March 1992

in Our readers, in order to speakto each other. each other and against eachother we tell.Justso has thisessaygone rolesin shapingthe stories short, playcrucial form,each of themreto reachits present fourseparateincarnations through real sense thatin a very communities waysto the critical spondingin different maybe, the ofrevision thisprocess howfrustrating them.No matter helpedauthor better as a result.46 textis in thiscase unquestionably resulting about here?What kindof tale haveI been

A Place for Stories Nature, History, And Narrative

Documents

Transcript of A Place for Stories Nature, History, And Narrative