Nature and History in the Potomac Country: From Hunter-Gatherers to the Age of Jefferson

How environmental forces, and human responses to them, profoundly shaped both Native American and colonial life along the Potomac River.

James D. Rice’s fresh study of the Potomac River basin begins with a mystery. Why, when the whole of the region offered fertile soil and excellent fishing and hunting, was nearly three-quarters of the land uninhabited on the eve of colonization? Rice wonders how the existence of this no man’s land influenced nearby Native American and, later, colonial settl...