This essay is an exercise in "following." It tells the story of Cynodon dactylon--- better known as common bermudagrass---to explore why people either valued or devalued the grass through time and what the changing social status of one species might tell us about the intersection of biology, ecology, and culture. In the process, it makes two additional points: grasses are historically important, and agricultural history is a site uniquely disposed to uniting environmental history with the history of science.
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Book
Hurt, R. Douglas;
(2011)
The Big Empty: The Great Plains in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001421801/)
Chapter
Possehl, Gregory L.;
(2003)
The Indus Civilization: An Introduction to Environment, Subsistence and Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001422462/)
Article
Tello, Enric;
Valldepera, Natàlia;
, Anna Ollés;
Marull, Joan;
Coll, Francesc;
Warde, Paul;
Wilcox, Paul Thomas;
(2014)
Looking Backwards into a Mediterranean Edge Environment: Landscape Changes in El Congost Valley (Catalonia), 1850--2005
(/isis/citation/CBB001421413/)
Book
Rogers, Thomas D.;
(2010)
The Deepest Wounds: A Labor and Environmental History of Sugar in Northeast Brazil
(/isis/citation/CBB001211190/)
Book
Marsha L. Weisiger;
(2009)
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
(/isis/citation/CBB805061553/)
Article
Sunseri, Thaddeus;
(2012)
Exploiting the Urwald: German Post-Colonial Forestry in Poland and Central Africa, 1900--1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001200329/)
Article
Anderson, J. L.;
(2005)
War on Weeds: Iowa Farmers and Growth-Regulator Herbicides
(/isis/citation/CBB000830417/)
Chapter
Madella, Marco;
(2003)
Investigating Agriculture and Environment in South Asia: Present and Future Contributions from Opal Phytoliths
(/isis/citation/CBB001422467/)
Article
Rangan, Haripriya;
Alpers, Edward A.;
Denham, Tim;
Kull, Christian A.;
Carney, Judith;
(2015)
Food Traditions and Landscape Histories of the Indian Ocean World: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections
(/isis/citation/CBB001422575/)
Book
Alessandra Dattero;
(2022)
Il bosco: Biodiversità, diritti e culture dal medioevo al nostro tempo
(/isis/citation/CBB708100664/)
Chapter
Weber, Steven A.;
(2003)
Archaeobotany at Harappa: Indications for Change
(/isis/citation/CBB001422466/)
Book
Hoffmann, Richard C.;
(2014)
An Environmental History of Medieval Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001422382/)
Book
Brooke, John L.;
(2014)
Climate Change and the Course of Global History: A Rough Journey
(/isis/citation/CBB001422667/)
Book
Moon, David;
(2013)
The Plough that Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia's Grasslands, 1700--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001550437/)
Article
Araral, Eduardo;
(2013)
What Makes Socio-Ecological Systems Robust? An Institutional Analysis of the 2,000 Year-Old Ifugao Society
(/isis/citation/CBB001421937/)
Article
Bello, David A.;
(2014)
Relieving Mongols of Their Pastoral Identity: Disaster Management on the Eighteenth-Century Qing China Steppe
(/isis/citation/CBB001420326/)
Book
Fairman, Elisabeth R.;
Art, Yale Center for British;
(2014)
Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists' Books and the Natural World
(/isis/citation/CBB001500458/)
Article
Uekōtter, Frank;
(2014)
Why Panaceas Work: Recasting Science, Knowledge, and Fertilizer Interests in German Agriculture
(/isis/citation/CBB001320830/)
Article
Freschet, Grégoire T.;
östlund, Lars;
Kichenin, Emilie;
Wardle, David A.;
(2014)
Aboveground and Belowground Legacies of Native Sami Land Use on Boreal Forest in Northern Sweden 100 Years after Abandonment
(/isis/citation/CBB001421440/)
Article
Beverly Soloway;
(2016)
“mus co shee”: Indigenous Plant Foods and Horticultural Imperialism in the Canadian Sub-Arctic
(/isis/citation/CBB852354053/)
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