Cultivating Nature

Winner of the 2019 Turku Book Award from the European Society for Environmental HistoryThe Albufera Natural Park, an area ten kilometers south of Valencia that is widely regarded as the birthplace of paella, has long been prized by residents and visitors alike. Since the twentieth century, the disparate visions of city dwellers, farmers, fishermen, scientists, politicians, and tourists have made this working landscape a site of ongoing conflict over environmental conservation in Europe, the future of Spain, and Valencian identity.In Cultivating Nature, Sarah Hamilton explores the Albufera’s contested lands and waters, which have supported and been transformed by human activity for a millennium, in order to understand regional, national, and global social histories. She argues that efforts to preserve biological and cultural diversity must incorporate the interests of those who live within heavily modified and long-exploited ecosystems such as the Albufera de Valencia. Shifting between local struggles and global debates, this fascinating environmental history reveals how Franco’s dictatorship, Spain’s integration with Europe, and the crisis in European agriculture have shaped the Albufera, its users, and its inhabitants.

This volume is a welcome addition to environmental collections given the conspicuous dearth of quality environmental histories of Spain. . . . Hamilton presents an approachable, well-researched account of how the Albufera was the nexus of environmentalists’ efforts for conservation through "rewilding" both before and after the Franco dictatorship and his regime’s pointed effort to develop the tourism industry on what would become an extremely sensitive and biodiverse site of European environmental importance. . . . Highly recommended., Understands the specificities of a space (La Albulfera de Valencia) that cannot be understood without human intervention in its more than six centuries of history; a space shaped by farmers, hunters, citizens of Valencia, politicians, and officials in a changing and often conflictive relationship, who display opposing interests and conflicting conceptions of conservation., [A] remarkable monograph, which demonstrates its author’s clear commitment to in-depth research in telling this fascinating and complex story., Cultivating Nature is a work written in a clear, engaging language, which is not only excellently suited for academic introductory courses on the agricultural and conservation history of Spain in the twentieth century, but also provides a good introduction for a readership outside the academic world that is generally interested in nature conservation., Hamilton captures the inherent complexity of environmental issues very well.

Sarah R. Hamilton is associate professor of history at Auburn University.