Series foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Pleistocene : the big chill / Ecological impact of the Ice Age -- Importance of climate change in the Pleistocene -- Plant migration and the warming trend -- Animal populations of the Pleistocene -- Effects of the glacial retreat -- Appearance of humans in the American South -- Theories of Pleistocene mammal extinction -- Paleoindian survival -- The younger dryas and the end of th Pleistocene era -- Holocene : meltdown / Early archaic human habitats and culture -- Effects of the hypsithermal -- Middle archaic human culture -- Climate changes in the Middle Archaic period -- Late Archaic culture -- Woodland period -- Middle woodland culture -- Late woodland culture -- Mississippian culture.

Moundville : enter Zea Mays / Spread of Mississippian culture -- Maize cultivation among the Mississippians -- Beans -- Additional dietary elements -- Consequences of a mixed subsistence economy -- Timber and rive cane use in Mississippian settlements -- Plant and animal depletions in the Mississippean period -- Climate and Mississippian survival -- Colony : the coast is cleared / Beginnings of the Spanish colonies -- Cabeza de Vaca's travails -- De Soto's conquests -- Early French settlements in the American South -- Continued Spanish dominance -- The Columbian exchange -- British arrivals -- Plantation : seeds of change / Rice -- Indigo -- Sugarcane -- Cotton -- Effect of cotton crops on soil -- The effect of slaves on the environment -- Other crops.

Upland : growing pains / Hunting and the fur trade -- White settlers, population increases, and changes to the landscape -- Livestock and the environment -- Corn and livestock -- Bluegrass, hemp, and other crops -- Ores, mining, and environmental effects -- Metropolis : paradise lost / Railroads and lumber -- Spanish moss and medicinal herbs -- Turpentine -- Commercial ports and the rivers -- Levee construction -- Dams and electricity -- The Tennessee Valley Authority and the river ecology -- Dams and marine life -- Electricity and industry -- Paradise lost? / A century of transformation -- Conserving the wild -- Transforming the agricultural landscape -- Planting a new agriculture -- Managing hazards in the landscape -- Growing cities -- Enjoying nature -- Conclusions : The transformation continues -- Epilogue.

Case studies -- The Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia/Florida) / A marginalized landscape -- Exploration and extraction -- Scientific inquiry, preservation, and tourism -- The making of Cancer Alley : a historical view of Louisiana's Chemical Corridor / From plantations to petrochemical corporations -- Attempt at regulation -- Further expansion of the chemical industry -- From " environmental" to "environmental justice" movement -- Corporate versus human welfare -- Conclusion -- Imperiled and extinct birds of the South / Important people, events, and concepts -- Chronology -- Documents -- References and bibliography -- Index.