
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
Discovering Paradise: “The More I Looked, the More I Liked It” Discovering Paradise: “The More I Looked, the More I Liked It”
-
The Population of Eden The Population of Eden
-
Labor and Its Rewards Labor and Its Rewards
-
New England’s Temperate Climate New England’s Temperate Climate
-
The Flora and Fauna of New England The Flora and Fauna of New England
-
-
Cultivating Wilderness: Importing English Order and Invention Cultivating Wilderness: Importing English Order and Invention
-
Debunking the Demonic Wilderness Debunking the Demonic Wilderness
-
A Wilderness “Spatious and Void” A Wilderness “Spatious and Void”
-
English Inventions in the Wilderness English Inventions in the Wilderness
-
English Ordering, English Eden English Ordering, English Eden
-
-
Confronting Failure: The Inward Turn Confronting Failure: The Inward Turn
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
{ 2 } Promoting Paradise, Ordering Wilderness: Topographical Optimism Meets Agricultural Reality
Get access-
Published:June 2014
Cite
Abstract
Chapter 2 engages recent environmental criticism, tracing a transition of terms describing New England landscapes from John Smith’s present “paradise” to the “hideous and desolate wilderness” of William Bradford’s Pilgrims and the prospective “Paradise” of Cotton Mather. New England colonists’ initial optimism was enabled by the evolution of cosmography and dramatic changes to North American flora and fauna occasioned by Native American smallpox epidemics. This paradisiacal mythos, in the 1620s and 1630s, stemmed from actual ecological shifts as well as a belief in divine promises associated with “empty,” depopulated lands and a confidence in the transformative power of English agriculture. After the first two decades of English occupation, when a temporary boom in game populations and indigenous produce subsided; when the landscape failed to blossom under colonial plows; when the Antinomian Controversy and Pequot War made the Puritan claim to divine promises suspect, this belief in the present paradisiacal potential of the New England landscape faded.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 3 |
December 2022 | 7 |
January 2023 | 3 |
February 2023 | 2 |
April 2023 | 2 |
July 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 6 |
December 2023 | 4 |
January 2024 | 4 |
February 2024 | 1 |
May 2024 | 7 |
June 2024 | 5 |
July 2024 | 3 |
August 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 4 |
November 2024 | 3 |
December 2024 | 1 |
January 2025 | 3 |
March 2025 | 6 |
April 2025 | 4 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.