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The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present (review)

environmental history students appreciated this organizational strategy, noting that it helped keep the book’s arguments fresh in their minds. The book works well as a teaching tool: it reveals complex causation while maintaining clarity and readability. As environmental history, the book is extremely satisfying. As Native American history, however, it gives rise to a couple of concerns. First, Isenberg refers to the bison-hunting peoples of the Plains as “nomads.” In the introduction, he acknowledges that “nomad” carries negative connotations, but he tries to rehabilitate the term by correcting the misperception that nomadic equals primitive (9). Nevertheless, he might have been wiser to choose a more neutral (even if more cumbersome) phrase. Second, Isenberg generalizes about cultural and economic patterns on the Plains, oattening the experiences of diverse bison-hunting communities. In Chapter 2, the reader is left with the impression that Indians responded in unitary fashion to the opportunities provided by horses, the fur trade, and disease. However, Isenberg appreciates the dynamism of culture, economy, and environment on the Plains. His treatment of Indian experiences, though overgeneralized, is still subtle and complex. Is there a moral to the bison story? According to Isenberg, pursuit of wealth through bison was an exercise in futility (122, 163). Both Indians and Euroamericans ignored the unsustainability of bison hunting in an unpredictable environment. In the end, they undercut their own livelihoods rather than increasing their prosperity.