Magoc, Chris J. 1960-

PERSONAL:

Born 1960.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Mercyhurst College, 501 E. 38th St., Erie, PA 16546. E-mail—cmagoc@mercyhurst.edu.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. Mercyhurst College, Erie, PA, associate professor of history and chair of the history department.

WRITINGS:

Yellowstone: The Creation and Selling of an American Landscape, 1870-1903, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1999.

Erie Maritime Museum and U.S. Brig Niagara: Pennsylvania Trail of History Guide, Stackpole Books (Mechanicsburg, PA), 2001.

So Glorious a Landscape: Nature and the Environment in American History and Culture, SR Books (Wilmington, DE), 2002.

Environmental Issues in American History: A Reference Guide with Primary Documents, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Chris J. Magoc is a historian who has written several books concerning environmental issues. In his first book, Yellowstone: The Creation and Selling of an American Landscape, 1870-1903, the author explores the establishment of Yellowstone National Park within the context of an industrialized society, such as the tie between development of Yellowstone as a national park and a growing railroad-based tourism business. "A work of substantial scholarship, this book takes a thorough look at original documents and early publications and is wonderfully illustrated with fifty-four historical photographs and maps," wrote James Pritchard in Isis. David Glassberg, writing in the Historian, noted the author's emphasis on the manipulated environment: "Magoc brings the tourist experience to life, from the dumping of laundry soap into geysers to stimulate eruptions … to the decision to protect charismatic megafauna, such as bison and elk, and to stock the lakes with non-native trout."

Magoc presents an anthology of thirty-two primary documents focusing on major topics in American environmental history in his book So Glorious a Landscape: Nature and the Environment in American History and Culture. The author also contributes five major introductions to the various topics, such as the impact of Europeans on the Native American population and the art of nature writing itself. Writing in American Studies International, Bernard Mergen noted that the book "will be useful to teachers of American studies and environmental history who want a more succinct and focused text than standard anthologies." Magoc is also the author of Environmental Issues in American History: A Reference Guide with Primary Documents. The book is "geared to be accessible to an undergraduate audience," according to a SciTech Book News contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Studies International, June, 2002, Bernard Mergen, review of So Glorious a Landscape: Nature and the Environment in American History and Culture, p. 111.

Historian, fall, 2001, David Glassberg, review of Yellowstone: The Creation and Selling of an American Landscape, 1870-1903, p. 154.

Isis, December, 2000, James Pritchard, review of Yellowstone, p. 797.

School Library Journal, June, 2006, "Resource Update: New Volumes in Established Series," p. 100.

SciTech Book News, September, 2006, review of Environmental Issues in American History: A Reference Guide with Primary Documents.

ONLINE

Mercyhurst College Department of History Web site,http://www.mercyhurst.edu/ (March 2, 2007), faculty listing for author.