Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie
4.7 | 60 ratings
Price: 17.33
Last update: 03-29-2026
Top reviews from the United States
- Glenn MillerWell-written, important environmental readBeautifully written book. In well-documented prose, this book explores aspects of the damage inflicted upon our critical grasslands by agricultural development and climate change. An absorbing, important read.
- R SchaferA well-written analysis of the impact of industrial farmingThis new book is tremendous and important. It documents what has happened to the American prairie over the last 150 years and how industrialized agriculture has resulted in environmental disasters and contributed to climate change. There's so much science in it that you would think the authors were scientists, but then it's written so clearly that it is easily understood by nonscientists. Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty have taken a complex subject and made it easily readable in words and stories that are accessible to anyone. The organization of the book also is masterful. Each chapter stands on its own, but then fits so well into the overall theme. The book should be of high interest to anyone who lives in the Great Plains or wants to understand the connections among climate change, the environment and agriculture.
- Bobbie-ReaderGreat from naturalist point of viewExceptional writing.
- Katrina OlsonAn unexpected delight to readGreat book! Well written, beautiful descriptions about a part of this country that we don’t often hear about.. Made me sad for the slow destruction of this diverse land and the impacts on climate and environment. Yet it offers hope for the future. Everyone should read this book.
- Barbara M. KlattImportant book for the future of the planetWell written, easy to read, powerful book.
- Jack96The prairies have mostly disappeared and that has changed our country's environment.An explanation of how, by destroying all the prairies, we have altered our country in ways that have been disastrous to many species. It also talks of programs that are restoring strips of prairies to help manage or stop the poisonous runoff.
- Amazon CustomerYes, would buy againcertainty an important book, today ad in the future. I live in Iowa, once tall grass prairies across the land ;now nearly none; we are paying the price today (pollution abounds all around-do not drink the water, please).
- PlaceholderA short story of the central plainsThis book describes in some detail the dynamics i witnessed growing up in north east montana in the late 1940s and the1950s and the 1960s. I failed to fully understand the conflicting thoughts and policies of that era.
I did see the empty chemical barrels in the coulees. I saw a goodly number of folks struck down by what we know now is the plague of Rachel Carson, silent spring...will we ever learn the lessons?
Hope springs eternal with the good solid stories of buffalo, regenerated fields, crop rotation and other solutions posited in the well done work.