Agricultural and environmental historians are skilled storytellers. They condense, organize, rework, and structure stories in ways that account for the human and nonhuman actors of the past. This can be a difficult task. After all, plant cycles, geological processes, and ecological systems hardly fit into the neat conception of time we humans have designed for ourselves. Though a challenging undertaking, it is an especially important one. Stories create a sense of place. They connect us to the natural world and humble us in the face of larger, environmental forces. They can also call us to action. As William Cronon has argued, “The special task of environmental history is to assert that stories about the past are better . . . if they increase our attention to nature and the place of people within it.” Telling effective and compelling stories might be one way that we can “hope to persuade...
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