This is a wide-ranging book that engages scholarship in a host of academic fields. My own specialty is literary interpretation and cultural history. Within that broad area I have worked most often in the fields of material culture and the classical heritage. I have visited the Mediterranean repeatedly, lived for extended periods in Italy, and worked on two archaeological digs in the region. Under the direction of Eric and Carol Meyers of Duke University, I participated in excavations at Meiron in northern Israel. More informally and for a shorter period, I was able to work for Joseph C. Carter of the University of Texas on his excavations at Metaponto in southern Italy. I have published a series of books on world cities that includes volumes on Rome and Athens.
As I wrote and revised this book, I received help and encouragement from a number of people. I am especially grateful to Bill McKibben, Gary Snyder, Robert Torrance, and John R. McNeill, who read and responded to portions of the manuscript. Charles Platter, a specialist in Greek literature and philosophy, made corrections and suggestions in his area of expertise. My colleague at the University of Georgia Ari Lieberman corrected my Hebrew and helped me navigate the history of Judaism. Brock Baker refined my approach to Christian ecological thinking. I also received guidance from Carol Meyers, Joe Carter, and the philosopher of aesthetics Ellen Dissanayake. Alexi Worth read an early draft; his strong reaction dramatically reshaped the book. Harry Haskell, formerly classics editor for Yale University Press, read and reread an unruly early draft and helped give it character and definition. Bill Nelson’s excellent maps have sharpened and grounded its argument. Successive classes in the literature and nature course that I taught for many years have been test audiences for successive versions. Wendy Strothman has been a constant champion of the project and an encouraging voice throughout. Steve Wasserman, Erica Hanson, Mary Pasti, and others at Yale University Press have combined unwavering support for the book and sure expertise through every phase of its publication.
The book that has finally taken shape is very different from the one I first imagined. Over the years, it has become more urgent, more argumentative, and more personal. There is a lot in it that my grandfathers, Noah Sylvanus Twigg and James McAlpine McGregor, both passionate and skilled gardeners, would recognize and appreciate. It has been supported and enriched in uncountable ways by my beloved family, to whom it is dedicated.