Politics, economics, and law of New England's rivers, a better title would have been, Water, Incorporated. The author focuses on the most powerful of the rivers, the Merrimack, which made citiies of Lawrence, Lowell, MA, and Manchester, NH, but draws on the investor expansions to less powerful rivers in Fall River, Fitchburg, Holyoke, and elsewhere in New England. The choice between economic development and environmental damage is litigated and negotiated case by case in a expanding nation, whose Eastern industry was eager to cash in on exploding demand for industrial products. More and more profit, creating more and more jobs, with costs willfully ignored and socialized. This is a classic story that repeats itself with local variations over human history and geography, whether it is later with big steel on the the Monongahela or earlier in Britain, Germany, and France or currently in developing nations. Extensive, detailed footnotes for anyone eager to verify and further research. ( )

Theodore Steinberg's Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England seeks to reinsert nature into the history of industrialization in nineteenth century New England. Specifically, Steinberg explores the ways in which humans "reshaped the natural world and how they transformed their relationship with nature to generate economic growth" (11).
This study of human impact upon the environment focuses on three main themes. First, industrial capitalism—especially as practiced in New England—has a tremendous ecological impact. Second, as resources become commodities, they become the focus of conflict over those resources (water). Third, water had to be reconceptualized-it was a common property yet individuals sought to establish "rights" over the use of that resource. Water became a resource not just in its own right, but also through the potential power that could be utilized through dams, canals, and mills.
Steinberg's study rests upon a wide range of resources: business records, personal papers, legal and government documents, and local histories and biographical sketches. Though his book lacks a bibliography, he makes extensive use of footnotes to document his wide-ranging research into primary and archival sources. In lieu of a bibliography, he includes a short bibliographical essay that—though somewhat unsatisfactory—serves to illuminate how Steinberg performed his research. Ultimately, Steinberg's theses seem well supported by his research.