Davis, Donald Edward 1959-

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Davis, Donald Edward 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959, in GA. Education: University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, B.A., 1985; West Georgia College, M.A. (psychology), 1986; Goddard College, M.A. (social ecology); University of Tennessee, Ph.D., 1993.

ADDRESSES:

Home—GA. Office—Dalton State College, 213 N. College Dr., Dalton, GA 30720.

CAREER:

Dalton State College, Dalton, GA, assistant professor, 1993—; European Council of the University System of Georgia, assistant professor in study abroad program, 1998, 1999.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright Scholar; Phil Reed writing award, 2001, for Where There Are Mountains.

WRITINGS:

Ecophilosophy: A Field Guide to the Literature, R & E Miles (San Pedro, CA), 1989.

Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 2000.

The Land of Ridge and Valley: A Photographic History of the Northwest Georgia Mountains, Arcadia Press (Mt. Pleasant, SC), 2001.

Homeplace Geography: Essays for Appalachia, Mercer University Press (Macon, GA), 2006.

Also author, with Jeremy Rifkin, of Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for the 21st Century. Contributor to periodicals, including Environmental Ethics, Ecologist, Trumpeter, and Utne Reader.

SIDELIGHTS:

Environmental sociologist Donald Edward Davis is well known for his book Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians. In this book, he examines the ways in which land, natural resources, and cultural groups influenced each other in the region from the precolonial era to the 1930s. Davis considers the impact on the land of several successions of human inhabitants, including Cherokee farmers, Spanish explorers, French and English fur traders, and immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. As he explains, the original settlers in this region, who had been agriculturalist, were decimated by diseases introduced by the Spanish; those who survived were absorbed into the culture of the Cherokees, who moved into the region from the east in the 1600s. Contact with European fur traders prompted the Cherokees, who had been farmers, to overhunt, which caused significant declines in animal populations and forced the Cherokees to become more dependent on manufactured European goods. But the dynamic was reciprocal, with European and Indian cultures borrowing from each other and creating a unique regional culture. In time, extensive farming and manufacturing further shaped the environment and culture of southern Appalachia, with industrial logging and dam building being the most devastating activities.

Reviewing Where There Are Mountains in Southern Cultures, Frank G. Queen admired Davis's "willingness to consider everything as relevant" to his topic. Geographical Review contributor Geoffrey L. Buckley also appreciated this "broad-brush approach," but noted that Davis's decision not to discuss the impact of coal mining is a significant omission. Nevertheless, Buckley found the book both provocative and "beautifully written," concluding that it would stand as "a benchmark against which future environmental works on Appalachia will be measured." Journal of Southern History contributor Mart A. Stewart deemed Where There Are Mountains a "fine book" that "makes an important contribution to the growing literature in regional environmental history."

In The Land of Ridge and Valley: A Photographic History of the Northwest Georgia Mountains, Davis provides an illustrated overview of the region's environmental history. Various chapters discuss the importance of rivers, forests, agriculture, and iron manufacturing in this region. Homeplace Geography: Essays for Appalachia collects several previously published essays as well as new material. As described by Journal of Southern History reviewer Robert S. Weise, the book argues that "humans can interact and have interacted with their ecosystems in sustainable ways" and that "ecological health and economic health fit together, at least on a local level." The book, in Weise's view, is "idiosyncratic but compelling and introspective."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Agricultural History, spring, 2004, H. Tyler Blethen, review of Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians.

Eighteenth-Century Studies, fall, 2005, "Scalping the Appalachian Frontiers."

Environmental Ethics, winter, 1990, Erik Haugland Banta, review of Ecophilosophy: A Field Guide to the Literature.

Geographical Review, July 1, 2000, Geoffrey L. Buckley, review of Where There Are Mountains, p. 457.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, summer, 2004, Ted L. Gragson, review of Where There Are Mountains.

Journal of Southern History, February 1, 2004, Mart A. Stewart, review of Where There Are Mountains, p. 206; August, 2007, Robert S. Weise, review of Homeplace Geography: Essays for Appalachia, p. 765.

Probe Post, fall, 1990, review of Ecophilosophy.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2006, review of Homeplace Geography.

Southern Cultures, fall, 2001, Frank G. Queen, review of Where There Are Mountains