A Landscape Transformed: The Ironmaking District of Salisbury, Connecticut (review)

A Landscape Transformed: The Ironmaking District of Salisbury, Connecticut. By Robert B. Gordon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. x+159. $29.95.

In his newest book on American iron, Robert Gordon examines the history and industrial ecology of ironmaking in Connecticut's Salisbury district, once the most important iron-producing region in the United States. Metal smelting began in northwest Connecticut in colonial times. New England settlers, aided by colonial investors, effectively utilized the area's forest, water, and iron-ore resources, quickly establishing a national reputation for the quality of the product. During the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, patriot artisans and the federal government turned to Salisbury's mines, furnaces, and forges for armaments. Later, operators concentrated their production on specialized, high-quality metal manufacturing such as that required by the nation's expanding railroads.

Gradually, however, sales declined as iron makers ignored new technologies adopted by their competitors. Iron making drifted into obsolescence and ended in 1923, after nearly two hundred years of production. In detailing this history, Gordon provides an informative examination of the landscape's transformation from unsettled wilderness to extractive industrial region and beyond.

Industrial ecology provides the analytic context for A Landscape Transformed, but Gordon moves beyond technical analysis of materials and energy flows. He argues that in order to obtain a better understanding of the environmental consequences of industrial development, historical analysis of the cultural context in which people make decisions about their use of technology and the environment is required. Natural resources and wastes, Gordon claims, are obvious components of any region's industrial ecology, but so, too, are the culture-bound values and preferences that guide the way a society allocates its resources for material goods and services.

Gordon obtains ample data on the environmental and social consequences of Salisbury iron making from a range of primary sources including personal letters, diaries, and account books. Revealing, also, is his use of material evidence derived from the landscape itself, and the text is strengthened by his firsthand knowledge of the Salisbury area. The concept of industrial ecology is introduced in the first chapter. Chapters 2 through 5 describe how European settlers used the ore and energy resources of this otherwise unpromising region to create a flourishing industrial economy. Although the reader may get bogged down in the details of individual smelting operations, Gordon effectively places local economic history into broader national context.

After exploring the cultural and geographic setting in which early artisans and merchant capitalists made their decisions about technology and resource use in chapter 6, Gordon then turns his attention to iron making's progression and eventual demise in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapter 9 describes the region's surprisingly successful transition from extractive industry to residential services. Concise conclusions are presented in chapter 10.

Gordon makes good use of historical photographs and figures. Although lacking cartographic detail (this is especially noticeable in regional-scale maps), the numerous sketch maps of individual ironworks augment the analysis. Sources are carefully cited, and a very useful appendix, "Ironmaking and Steelmaking Techniques," aids the reader in understanding the various technologies used by Salisbury iron makers.

The Salisbury district, unlike other historic iron making regions, was largely spared the long-term economic and environmental costs of iron mining and smelting. Exploitation of natural resources brought environmental change, but sustainable use of renewable fuel and power resources (charcoal and falling water), the recycling of slag, and the dispersed nature and limited size of Salisbury's ironworks minimized the industry's environmental impact.

As Gordon explains, however, comparison with other iron making regions that enjoyed similar natural resources and markets shows how cultural preferences played a key role in influencing industrial ecology. He successfully argues that accumulation of wealth had a weaker hold on Salisbury operators. Local control of the industry and appreciation of the region's natural beauties also limited environmental exploitation. Most significantly, however, the respect accorded...