■ COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS ■

1. Question

   Compare the multiple perspectives of the sources in this chapter to identify similarities and differences in attitudes toward nature. What positive and negative associations with the environment emerge from these sources?

2. Question

   To what extent did environmental factors such as geography and climate constrain and shape Americans’ actions?

3. Question

   Analyze and evaluate Olmsted’s depiction of west Texas by comparing it to John Barnard’s view of Marblehead, Massachusetts (Document 3-5). How does each evoke a sense of place? What similarities and differences in point of view toward the environment does each express?

4. Question

   What effect might the consideration of environmental factors have on a historian’s interpretation of America’s past? How, for instance, might the political or economic interpretation of the period from 1800 to 1860 compare to an interpretation from an environmental perspective?