Description: The American Chestnut tells the story of the American chestnut from Native American prehistory through the Civil War and the Great Depression. Davis documents the tree's impact on nineteenth-and early twentieth-century American life, including the decorative and culinary arts.
Brief description:
DONALD EDWARD DAVIS is an independent scholar, author, and former Fulbright fellow. He has authored or edited seven books, including Southern United States: An Environmental History. His second book, Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians, won the prestigious Philip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award. Davis was also the founding member of the Georgia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, serving as its president from 2005 to 2006. He is currently employed by the Harvard Forest as a part-time research scholar and lives in Washington, D.C.
Review Quotes: The American chestnut is no meek-mannered sweetheart but a force of nature; compressing its gargantuan life story into a compact and engaging narrative is no mean task. Davis has achieved in making it accessible, tackling with ease various aspects that influenced the species and that the species influenced--from history and economy and science to culture and environment--to offer a well-rounded account of this American legacy.--Anuradha Prasad "Split Rock Review"