Ancient Landscapes of South Texas
Libraries are replete with travel literature focusing on specific topics like roadside geology, plants and wildlife, and history of a region (e.g., Brush 2005; Miller et al. 2018; Spearing 1979). Few have sought to take the interdisciplinary approach of the naturalists of the past e.g., Longoria 1997, 2000, 2017). That is to consider the nexus between natural and cultural history. James Burke’s Connections television series provided an “Alternative View of Change.” The proposed book Exploring Ancient Landscapes of South Texas will take this rare approach to illuminate the broad scope of how natural forces shaped South Texas and its inhabitants and how during the Anthropocene its inhabitants are shaping the landscape. This is story or a region of Texas and the United States that is unique and largely unknown in American cultural and natural history.