引言城市史和环境史都是美国历史学相对较新的分支领域。尽管其缘起可以追溯到更早时期,(但)城市史受到持续的重点研究是在上世纪60、70年代,而环境史则成型于上世纪70、80年代。两者很大程度上都是当时重大事件和思潮的产物,并非由过去的研究单独发展而来。城市史反映的是处于瓦解衰败时代的城市,关注它的成长、衰退和未来;环境史则体现了那个年代人们对环境质量、对威胁自然和人类健康的因素的日益重视。最初,这两个领域的关注点很大程度上并无联系。毕竟,城市史研究的是城市和人工环境,而环境史主要研究的是自然环境和不同形式的荒野。正如杰出的环境史学家唐纳德·沃斯特(Donald Worster)所解释的那 Introduction Urban history and environmental history are relatively new branches of American history. Although its origins can be traced back to earlier times, (but) urban history has been the focus of sustained research in the 1960s and 1970s, while environmental history was shaped in the 1970s and 1980s. To a large extent, both were the products of the major events and currents of thought at that time and were not developed independently from the past studies. Urban history reflects cities in an era of decay and decline, focusing on its growth, decline and future; and environmental history reflects the growing emphasis on environmental quality, the factors that threaten nature and human health at that time. Initially, the focus of these two areas is largely unrelated. After all, urban history studies urban and artificial environments, while environmental history focuses primarily on the natural environment and the different forms of the wilderness. As the distinguished environmental historian Donald Worster explains