Reviews for Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage

The average rating for Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-05-28 00:00:00 John Gruber Dianne Glave's book argues against a perception of African Americans as anti-environmentalists as she demonstrates the existence of an African American environmental heritage. Her book mostly concerns the U.S. South and does an admirable job in addressing the legacy of slavery. She cites a number of texts literary critics will be familiar with from Alice Walker's In Search of My Mother's Gardens to Jean Toomer's Cane . This is a book appropriate for a general audience or an undergraduate classroom. It is clear from the concluding paragraph in each chapter that part of Glave's point is to encourage more African Americans to reassess and reclaim a forgotten African American environmental ethos.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-12 00:00:00 Jesse Heridan Exploring the complicated connection between Black folks and the outdoors, its socio-historical implications, environmental racism, and our largely under-reported relationship with self-directed agriculture, Rooted in the Earth helps one understand the role of nature in the lives of enslaved Black people, and Black people of the post-antebellum era in "America." Each chapter opens with a brief, fictional, "Roots"-style account of a Black protagonist navigating, resisting, and surviving the harsh waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and the stolen, indigenous land upon which we stand. Simple, poetic language. A bit heteronormative at times, but an interesting read.