Examines America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11 and the global environmental crisis, and shows how the solutions to these two problems are linked-- we can restore the world and revive America at the same time.

"A longtime backpacker, climber, and skier, Michael Lanza knows our national parks like the back of his hand. As a father, he hopes to share these special places with his two young children. But he has seen firsthand the changes wrought by the warming climate and understands what lies ahead ... He takes his nine-year-old son, Nate, and seven-year-old daughter, Alex, on an ambitious journey to see as many climate-threatened wild places as he can fit...

"From the author of the acclaimed 97 Orchard and her husband, a culinary historian, an in-depth exploration of the greatest food crisis the nation has ever faced--the Great Depression--and how it transformed America's culinary culture. The decade-long Great Depression, a period of shifts in the country's political and social landscape, forever changed the way America eats. Before 1929, America's relationship with food was defined by abundance. But...

"From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of people across the country--cutting lives tragically short and needlessly burdening our health care system....

In the bestselling tradition of Michael Pollan's "Second Nature," this fascinating and unique historical work tells the remarkable story of the relationship between Americans and trees across the entire span of our nation's history. The history of trees in America is no less remarkable than the history of the United States itself--from the majestic white pines of New England, coveted by the British Crown for use as masts in navy warships, to the...

"A close look at our nation's conflicted love affair with fossil fuels (including coal, oil, and natural gas) and their pervasive impact on American life and culture. While carbon has literally fueled a relentless technological progress and provided the highest standard of living the world has ever seen, it's also been the engine for environmental and human degradation, a blithe consumerism unaware of its carbon dependency, and dangerously large concentrations...