Changes in the Land by William Cronon examines the ecological transformation that occurred in early New England during the shift from Indian to European dominance. In this persuasive interpretation of the varying circumstances in New England's plant and animal population Cronon establishes a complex dialectical relationship between two contrasting cultures and the world they were forced to share.
             Although Cronon states that all human groups consciously and subconsciously change their environment to some extent, the essential characteristics of the New England landscape were kept in near equilibrium by the cultural practices of the Indians during precolonial times. Up until the arrival of the Europeans in New England, the Indians only took from the land what they could use and maintained simple lives. With the Colonists came a world of capitalism that assisted in converting a land of wilderness into a land of agricultural settlement flooded with fields and fences. By 1800 the interaction between the Indians, the Colonists and their relationships with the land had resulted in a transformed landscape that was far different from the one the earliest European visitors had described.
             In Changes in the Land Cronon offers an explanation of the changing ecological conditions that occurred in New England with the arrival of the Europeans. Cronon believes that the actual ecological changes themselves are not as important as to why these changes occurred in the first place. He feels that humans create and re-create their livelihood not just through social relations but also through ecological relations.
             He opens his argument by comparing and contrasting the precolonial ecosystems of New England with those at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Next he compares the precolonial relationship between the Indians and the land with those of the Europeans when they arrived in New England. He spends the remainder o
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