First Thoughts
By Harriet Ritvo
 
I have been told that it is customary to use my first message as president to set forth my initiatives for ASEH, but that feels like too strong a word.  Like most members, I have benefitted greatly from the exchanges it sponsors, whether in its publications (paper and electronic) or at the annual meetings.  It seems to me that the first concern of the society should be to insure that members continue to enjoy and appreciate their membership.
 
That, of course, may be easier said than done. On the most practical level, operating a small to medium-sized society, with a tiny though extremely talented and dedicated staff, presents many challenges. Even in ordinary times, as the Red Queen demonstrated to Alice, it may be necessary to run in order to stay in place.  And, as we are all well aware from our own experience and observation, these are not ordinary times.  The financial pressures on individual members and on academic institutions are apt to trickle down (or over) to professional societies like the ASEH.  Attending the forthcoming meetings in Portland and Phoenix may represent a more significant commitment than has been the case in the recent past; the society may have to work harder to find support for new outreach and other initiatives.
 
The scholarly growth that has been one of the strengths of the ASEH also poses potential problems. Our members have become increasingly diverse in terms of their research topics and even their disciplinary affiliations.  It will be necessary to strike a balance between accommodating this proliferation of interests and maintaining the core intellectual focus that unites us.To put it another way, our differences should produce exchange rather than fragmentation.
 
One obvious axis of increased variation has been geographical. There is a theoretical sense in which environmental history might be less constrained by human boundaries, whether political, cultural, or linguistic, than is the case with other historical subdisciplines, but of course this theory is not borne out in practice. An overwhelming majority of ASEH members specialize in the environmental history of a single nation (most often the United States), and it is obviously useful to see how similar issues evolve in other settings. Perhaps less obviously, geographical variation among historians can be as illuminating as geographical diversity among their subjects; we are products of our locations, as well as of our training.
 
I am writing this in England, where I have just had the rewarding experience of talking about Manchester with a group of Mancunians, and talking about the Lake District with scholars actively concerned with its conservation as a historical landscape. Such alternative perspectives cast new light even on shared expertise.  For some time, ASEH meetings have attracted an impressive number of international scholars.  I look forward to their continued engagement with the society, especially at a time when increasing public awareness of global environmental problems makes the need for a usable past especially urgent.