Donald Worster, who was born in 1941, is an American environmental historian. Before retiring, he was the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas. He helped start the field of environmental history and is a key person in it. In 2009, he was chosen to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. After retiring from the University of Kansas, he became a Distinguished Foreign Expert and senior professor in the School of History at Renmin University of China.

Early life

Donald Worster was born in 1941 and grew up in Hutchinson, Kansas. He graduated from Hutchinson High School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963 and a Master of Arts degree in 1964 from the University of Kansas. He continued his studies at Yale University, where he received an M.Phil. in 1970 and a PhD. in history in 1971. During his time at Yale, he worked with Howard R. Lamar.

Professional career

David Worster taught at Brandeis University starting in 1971 and became the Meyerhoff Professor in American Environmental Studies. In 1989, he joined the University of Kansas as the Hall Chair in American History, returning to the school where he first studied and to his home region. During his career, Worster wrote many books, including The Wealth of Nature, Under Western Skies, Rivers of Empire, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, Nature's Economy, and A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell. He served as president of the American Society for Environmental History and was a member of the Western History Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association. He gave lectures in many countries, including Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and throughout North America. After retiring from the University of Kansas, he became a Distinguished Foreign Expert and senior professor at the School of History at Renmin University of China.

Worster focuses mainly on environmental history. He also studies comparative history, especially between the United States and Canada, American regionalism, particularly the West, agriculture, and science and technology. He describes farms and gardens as "domesticated ecologies," meaning places where people change their environment, and the environment also changes people.

Works

• Shrinking the Earth: The Rise and Decline of Natural Abundance (2016) ISBN 019984495X
• The Good Muck: A History of Waste in China, Transformations in Environment and Society, Rachel Carson Center, 2017
• "The American West in the Age of Vulnerability." Western Historical Quarterly 45.1 (2014): 5-16. in JSTOR
• "The Higher Altruism." Environmental History 19.4 (2014): 716-720.
• A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir (2008) ISBN 0-19-516682-5
• A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell (2002) ISBN 0-19-515635-8
• An Unsettled Country: Changing Landscapes of the American West (1994) ISBN 0-8263-1481-3
• The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination (1994) ISBN 0-19-507624-9
• Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West (1992) ISBN 0-19-505820-8
• "Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History," The Journal of American History 76:4 (March 1990): 1106. in JSTOR
• Editor of The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History (Cambridge University Press, 1988).
• Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West (1985) ISBN 0-19-507806-3
• "The Ecology of Order and Chaos." Environmental History Review (1990): 1-18. in JSTOR
• Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (1979) ISBN 0-19-502550-4
• Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (1977) ISBN 0-87156-197-2

Quotes

No matter which topic an environmental historian studies, they must deal with the long-standing problem of how humans can grow enough food without harming the natural resources that support life. This challenge remains the main issue in human ecology today. Finding solutions will require understanding Earth's history and recognizing its limits.