'The reality of living': Science, gender, and nature in American culture, 1865--1965 (Clarence King, Robert Marshall, Rachel Carson)

This dissertation is focused around the lives and legacies of three environmental scientists: geologist Clarence King (1842–1901), forester Robert Marshall (1901–1939), and biologist Rachel Carson (1907–1964). By using these individuals as an entry into the larger narrative of American history, this study explores how nature shapes American society. Although these individuals were not acquainted, and their work, writing, and professional careers were unconnected, each worked to transform the role of nature within America by illustrating the profound connections between natural history and human history. This trio is a diverse group, but as professional scientists, often working for the government, they helped to shape federal science policy and bureaucratic relationships with the natural world. As individuals, they continually reevaluated their views on nature in response to changing social climates.; This project concentrates on three periods in American history: Victorian America of the 1870s and 1880s, the 1920s and 1930s, and post-World War II America of the 1950s and 1960s. In these decades, the crises of war, economic collapse and recovery, and massive social change prompted many Americans to look for answers to human problems in the natural world. Turning to nature for reassurance is not unusual in American history. In uncertain times, nature often becomes a location of social salvation. That is, an experience in nature rejuvenated tired bodies, provided an escape from domestic tensions, or, most significantly, provided a foundation for beliefs about hierarchies of power and order. Americans are continually attaching and reattaching meanings to the natural world that surrounds them. Through an examination of the context of these changes, we can learn as much about human history as we can the role that nature plays in American culture.; Rachel Carson significantly impacted American culture, Clarence King and Robert Marshall less so, but all utilized important strategies to achieve their goals. They each built successful scientific careers as individuals. And in the process, conformed to disciplinary patterns in their fields and created new ways of looking at science and nature that broke free from traditional knowledge. This dissertation explores these strategies in an effort to illustrate how significant analytical categories, such as ideas of gender and science, impacted the way Americans have apprehended the natural world.