A Thousand Pieces of Paradise: Landscape And Property in the Kickapoo Valley

A Thousand Pieces of Paradiseis an ecological history of property and a cultural history of rural ecosystems set in one of Wisconsin's most famous regions, the Kickapoo Valley. While examining the national war on soil erosion in the 1930s, a controversial real estate development scheme, Amish land settlement, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam project, and Native American efforts to assert longstanding land claims, Lynne Heasley traces the historical development of modern American property debates within ever-more-diverse rural landscapes and cultures. Heasley argues that the way public discourse has framed environmental debates hides the full shape our system of property has taken in rural communities and landscapes. She shows how democratic and fluid visions of property-based on community relationships-have coexisted alongside individualistic visions of property rights. In this environmental biography of a landscape and its people lie powerful lessons for rural communities seeking to understand and reconcile competing values about land and their place in it. Published in association with the Center for American Places, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Staunton, Virginia. www.americanplaces.org ;So much for cookie-cutter stereotypes of the rural Midwest! . . . Highly recommended. ;- Choice

Lynne Heasley is assistant professor of history and environmental studies at Western Michigan University.