Nature's Nation examines our consumer-based industrial and urban society and notes the heavy price paid to create this by placing the political, economic, social and cultural development of the U.S within an environmental framework.

"O strange new wolrd!" -- World we have lost : people of the land -- Federal geography -- When the United States was an undeveloped country -- Unifying American space -- Romantic America and utopianism : laying claim to paradise -- Determining America's environmental future : the rush to industrialize -- Reshaping the nation : the built environment and public works -- Environmental costs of industrial America : cities and landscapes in trouble -- From nature's water to public works water : America becomes a hydraulic civilization -- Hitting on the wall : environmental limits in Appalachia and on the High Plains. Recovering "original America" : the wilderness movement -- Environmentalism enters the American mainstream : environmental science, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and public awareness -- Risk and regulation : environmentalism enters the modern era -- Into the twenty-first century : the United States and the global environment.