Carolyn Merchant's foundational 1980 book The Death of Nature: Women,
Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution established her as a pioneering
researcher of human-nature relations. Her subsequent groundbreaking
writing in a dozen books and over one hundred peer-reviewed articles
have only fortified her position as one of the most influential scholars
of the environment. This book examines and builds upon her decades-long
legacy of innovative environmental thought and her critical responses to
modern mechanistic and patriarchal conceptions of nature and women as
well as her systematic taxonomies of environmental thought and action.
Seventeen scholars and activists assess, praise, criticize, and extend
Merchant's work to arrive at a better and more complete understanding of
the human place in nature today and the potential for healthier and more
just relations with nature and among people in the future. Their
contributions offer personal observations of Merchant's influence on the
teaching, research, and careers of other environmentalists.