A Natural History of the American East in Five Wayside Plants

FAIN: FT-286540-22

William Thomas Okie
Kennesaw State University (Marietta, GA 30144-5591)

Writing and revision leading to a book on humans’ history with five common but overlooked plant species.

This book project argues that any solution to the environmental crises of our time must include the cultivation of local attachments and deepening affections for the degraded landscapes and ordinary plants of everyday life. It explores the hidden history of five common plants—broomsedge, pokeweed, eastern redcedar, sassafras, and wild grapes—that flourish across eastern North America in verges, ditches, rights-of-way, and other wayside landscapes. The project contributes to developing conversations in the environmental humanities, including the power and creativity of plants, the multisensory nature of environmental perception, and the new material humanism. It also translates these ideas for a general audience through firsthand field reports and the use of historical examples, such as sixteenth-century Native shamans and European explorers, nineteenth-century rural foragers and manufacturers, twentieth-century novelists and medical researchers.

Associated Products