Char Miller, environmental historian extraordinaire, publishes two new books: The Yale School of the Environment: The First 125 Years and Nature and Place in Texas: A History.
Miller's The Yale School of the Environment: The First 125 Years (University of North Carolina Press, 2026), co-written with James G. Lewis, Nark S. Ashton, and Rachel D. Kline, examines the history of the first graduate school of forestry in the Western Hemisphere at Yale University. The original mission was training men to lead America’s forest conservation movement. What the two professors created, though, quickly became the foremost school for educating leaders in forest and environmental sciences, policy, and practice around the world, and the model for many other schools to emulate. It remains so 125 years later. YSE faculty and graduates have been successful by adapting to ever-changing conditions in the classroom, on campus, in the field, and in the laboratory, and in state legislatures and national governments. They’ve staffed, founded, or led schools of natural resources, nonprofit conservation organizations, governmental agencies, and forest-product corporations, and served the needs of urban neighborhoods and those living in the remotest corners of the planet. The goal for faculty and students alike has been to increase and our understanding of the natural world and the built landscape while serving the public good. From the moment the school’s founding director Henry Graves called the first class to order and for every succeeding generation, YSE has had—and continues to have—a global impact unlike any other.
Nature and Place in Texas: A History (Texas Tech University Press, 2026), co-edited by Miller, Kenna Lang Archer and Jason Pierce, reimagines the Lone Star story by centering its ecosystems. This collection of essays by leading environmental historians reveals how the state’s natural features—its plains, deserts, rivers, forests, and coastlines—have shaped and been shaped by human endeavor. From the long shadow of plantation agriculture along Texas rivers to the contested engineering of the Rio Grande, and from the lost pines of East Texas to the windblown plains of the Panhandle, these essays chart a dynamic, place-based history. Organized by ecological regions and themes—such as water, labor, urban development, and recreation—this volume offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the environmental dimensions of Texas history. Contributors draw from interdisciplinary methods and speak to ongoing concerns like climate change, land use, and environmental justice. With its regional breadth and scholarly depth, Nature and Place in Texas invites readers to see the Lone Star State in a new light—as a place where history and ecology are inseparable.