An excellent reference on much of
>this is Donald Worster, _Nature's Economy: A History of
>Ecological Ideas_, 1977, Cambridge University Press.
>Barkley Rosser
Worster is somebody who I will be relying on for my next post on the Blackfoot. His book "Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West" has a chapter "Grassland Follies: Agricultural Capitalism on the Plains" that seems very promising. I also have his "Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity and the Growth of the American West" which details the environmental costs of damming rivers for the purpose of irrigation and electricity.
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)