Brian Donahue

Associate Professor of American Environmental Studies (on the Jack Meyerhoff Fund)

Departments/Programs

American Studies
Environmental Studies
History

Degrees

Brandeis University, Ph.D.
Brandeis University, M.A.
Brandeis University, B.A.

Expertise

American environmental studies, New England farm and forest history, sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, land conservation

Profile

Teaches courses on environmental issues, environmental history, sustainable farming and forestry, and early American culture. Primary research interests include the history and the prospects of human engagement with the land, especially in New England

Courses Taught

AMST	30b	American Environmental History
AMST	105a	The Eastern Forest: Paleoecology to Policy
AMST	106b	Food and Farming in America

Awards and Honors

Brandeis Senior Faculty Research Leave -- "Mending Wall" (2019)

Member, American Antiquarian Society (2016)

2015 Bay State Legacy Award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (2015)

American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (2011)

American Society for Environmental History George Perkins March Prize for the book "The Great Meadow" (2005)

Harvard Forest Charles Bullard Fellowship (2005)

New England Historical Association Book Award for "The Great Meadow" (2005)

Theodore Saloutos Prize, Agricultural History Society for the book "The Great Meadow" (2005)

Choice Outstanding Academic Title (The Great Meadow) (2004)

Best book "advancing the understanding of New England landscape and material culture" from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (2000 - 2001)

Marver and Sheva Bernstein Faculty Fellowship (2000 - 2001)

Choice Oustanding Academic Book (Reclaiming the Commons: Commumity and Forests in a New England Town) (1999)

National Endowment for Humanities Independent Scholar (1997 - 1998)

Watson Fellowship (1982 - 1983)

Scholarship

Donahue, Brian M. "Review of "The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century"." by Richard Bushman. William and Mary Quarterly vol. 76 January, 2019: 151-155.

Lefland, Aaron, Huff, Emily S., Donahue, Brian. "“A Community Forestry Model Linking Research, Management, Education, and Stakeholder Engagement: Case Study Results from the Town of Weston, Massachusetts, USA,”." Small-Scale Forestry published on-line December 2017. awaiting assignment (2018): 1-10.

Donahue, Brian, et al. A New England Food Vision: Healthy Food for All, Sustainable Farming and Fishing, Thriving Communities (booklet). Durham, NH: Food Solutions New England, University of New Hampshire, 2014.

Donahue, Brian. "Walden Woods: reconciling preservation and use in Thoreau’s country." Environment and Ideology of nature on the Metropolitan Fringe: Green Sprawl. Ed. Kirsten Valentine Cadieux and Laura E. Taylor. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012

Donahue, Brian. "Historian with a Chainsaw: Teaching Environmental History in the Field." OAH Magazine of History 25. 4 (2011): 33-35.

Donahue, Brian. "Review of Restoration Ecology." by Marcus Hall, ed. Journal of Interdisciplinary History vol. 41 Spring, 2011

Donahue, Brian; Hagenstein, Edwin C; and Gregg, Sara M.. American Georgics: Writings on Farming, Culture and the Land. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.

Foster, David R., Donahue, Brian et al. Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the New England Landscape. Petersham, MA: Harvard Forest: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Donahue, Brian. ""Remaking Boston, Remaking Massachusetts"." Remaking Boston: An Environmental History. Ed. Conrad Wright & Anthony Penna. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009

David R. Foster, Brian Donahue et al. "New England Regional Narrative." Agrarian Landscapes in Transition: A Cross-scale Approach. Ed. Charles Redmond and David R. Foster. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008

Donahue, Brian. "Husbandry in Colonial Concord: GIS as a Tool for Environmental History." Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing the Practice of History. Ed. Anne Kelly Knowles. ESRI, 2008

Donahue, Brian. "Another Look from Sanderson's Farm: A Perspective on New England Environmental History and Conservation." Environmental History 12. 1 (2007): 9-34.

Donahue, Brian. "The Greatest Good: A Forest Service Centennial Film." by Steve Dunsky et al. Environmental History vol. 12 177-79.

Foster, David R., Brian Donahue, et al. Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the Future of the Masschusetts Forest. Harvard Forest Paper, 2005.

Donahue,Brian M. "Environmental Stewardship and Decline in Old New England." Journal of the Early Republic 24. (2004).

Donahue,Brian M. The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord. Yale Univeristy Press, 2004.

Donahue, Brian. "The Resettling of America." The Essential Agrarian Reader. Ed. Norman Wirzba. University Press of Kentucky, 2003

Donahue, Brian. "Reclaiming the Commons." The New Agrarianism: Land, Culture, and the Community of Life. Ed. Eric T. Freyfogle. Island Press, 2001

Donahue,Brian M. Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.

Donahue, Brian. "'Dammed at Both Ends and Cursed in the Middle': The 'Flowage' of the Concord River Meadows, 1798 - 1862." Out of the Woods: Essays in Environmental History. Ed. Char Miller and Hal Rothman. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997