{{Short description|2018 book by Megan Black}} {{Infobox book | name = The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power | published = 2018 | isbn = 9780674984257 | pages = 360 | media_type = Print | subject = U.S. Department of the Interior; American imperialism | language = English | country = United States | author = Megan Black | caption = | image = Cover of 2018 book The Global Interior.jpg | publisher = Harvard University Press | genre = American history; Environmental history }}
'''''The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power''''' is a 2018 book by Megan Black, Associate Professor of History at MIT.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Megan A. Black|url=https://history.mit.edu/people/megan-a-black/|access-date=2021-04-10|website=MIT History|language=en}}</ref> The book documents the history of the U.S. Department of the Interior and its role in American imperialism.
== Contents == ''The Global Interior'' examines the Department of the Interior from its role in settling the American west to its operation of the Landsat satellite for mineral surveying from space.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Larson|first=Zeb|date=2018-10-02|title=Megan Black, 'The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power'|url=https://newbooksnetwork.com/megan-black-the-global-interior-mineral-frontiers-and-american-power-harvard-up-2018|access-date=2021-04-09|website=New Books Network|language=en}}</ref> Black argues that the Department has been key to the expansion and exercise of American power, widening the scope of what is considered “interior” to the nation state through the guise of scientific and resource management.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Klinger|first=Julie Michelle|date=2019-11-18|title='The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers And American Power' By Megan Black|url=https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/the-global-interior-mineral-frontiers-and-american-power-by-megan-black|access-date=2021-04-09|website=Society + Space}}</ref> In the process, Black demonstrates that the Department has played a key role in reconceptualizing the Earth as a mineral repository and thus as a potential mining site.<ref name=":0" /> Moreover, Black draws key connections between American environmental history and foreign relations, highlighting the ways in which facilitating the exploitation of resources abroad enabled greater conservation of domestic resources.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Ahlberg|first=Kristin L.|date=2020|title=Review of 'The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power'|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3098/ah.2020.094.1.165|journal=Agricultural History|volume=94|issue=1|pages=165–167|jstor=10.3098/ah.2020.094.1.165|issn=0002-1482}}</ref>
The Department was founded in 1849 and Black highlights its role from its inception until the 1980s in numerous episodes of American expansionism from settler colonialism and Manifest Destiny through to the Cold War and international development, the Space Race, and the war on terror.<ref name=":0" /> Black argues that the Department was “created ''of'' and ''for'' American expansionism,”<ref>{{Cite book|last=Black|first=Megan|title=The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2018|isbn=9780674984257|location=Cambridge, MA|pages=17}}</ref> and also that it “was a key mechanism for ensuring ''and'' obscuring the projection of American power in the world.”<ref>{{Cite book|last=Black|title=Global Interior|pages=4}}</ref> Initially serving to confine Native Americans to reservations and develop western resources, the Department easily turned its attention to resource development in overseas territories such as the Philippines after the “closing” of the American frontier. This also served the purpose of recasting strategic American military occupations as technical or economic exploration and development.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Macekura|first=Stephen|date=2019-10-01|title=Megan Black. 'The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power'.|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz086|journal=The American Historical Review|volume=124|issue=4|pages=1401–1403|doi=10.1093/ahr/rhz086|issn=0002-8762|via=OUP|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Ultimately, this suggests that minerals were not only a prominent reason for American expansionism, but also a means to achieving it.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Furse|first=Thomas|date=2019-10-08|title=Book Review: 'The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power' by Megan Black|url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2019/10/08/book-review-the-global-interior-mineral-frontiers-and-american-power-by-megan-black/|access-date=2021-04-09|website=LSE Review of Books}}</ref>
During World War II the Department further expanded its reach in mineral procurement under the auspices of the Allied war effort, establishing influence and supply chains that would continue to grow in peacetime. Black argues that this global reach was a key to resolving the tension between developing mineral resources and domestic conservation.<ref name=":0" /> Importantly, much of the work of the Department has been focused on securing minerals for private American interests rather than for the state itself.<ref name=":2" /> However, this approach has often been resisted by other states, particularly in the post-colonial period, and Black demonstrates that the Department has since increased its focus on charting and exploiting undersea and outer space resources. Moreover, Black shows how the Department successfully mobilized ideas of the global environment and natural resources being borderless to argue that resource expertise likewise should not be limited by national borders, facilitating the further expansion of American power.<ref name=":1" />
Black also examines how the Department returned full circle to Native American reservations, especially since the 1970s, where it has sought development of fossil fuel and uranium resources in particular, efforts that have met persistent resistance from Native Americans. Finally, the author looks at mineral exploitation in the context of the war on terror, especially in Afghanistan.<ref name=":0" />
The book highlights the developmental work of the Department in its global endeavors, such as developing water sanitation and irrigation in the Global South and conservation programs for wildlife, forests, rivers, and soil. However, the underlying argument is that such programs were ultimately used in the pursuit of mineral wealth and in securing that wealth for American interests.<ref name=":3" />
''The Global Interior'' focuses attention on a number of key players in the history of the Department, including Frank Herbert, who worked closely with the Department in the 1950s before publishing the novel ''Dune'' in 1965, a science fiction story chronicling a declining intergalactic society fixated on resource extraction.<ref name=":2" />
== Awards == ''The Global Interior'' has received numerous awards. It won the 2019 George Perkins Marsh Prize from the American Society for Environmental History as the best book in Environmental history;<ref>{{Cite web|title=American Society for Environmental History - Award Recipients|url=https://aseh.org/award-recipients|access-date=2021-04-09|website=aseh.org|archive-date=2020-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112184904/https://aseh.org/award-recipients|url-status=dead}}</ref> the 2019 Stuart L. Bernath Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations as the best first book in US foreign relations;<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize|url=https://shafr.memberclicks.net/bernath-book-prize|access-date=2021-04-09|website=Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations - shafr.memberclicks.net}}</ref> the 2019 W. Turrentine Jackson Book Prize from the Western History Association as the best first book in Western U.S. history;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Western History Association - W. Turrentine-Jackson Award|url=https://www.westernhistory.org/awards/turrentine-jackson|access-date=2021-04-09|website=www.westernhistory.org}}</ref> and the 2019 British Association for American Studies Book Prize for the best book in American Studies.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|title=BAAS Book Prize|url=https://www.baas.ac.uk/baas-book-prize/|access-date=2021-04-09|website=British Association for American Studies|date=31 March 2010|language=en-US}}</ref>
== See also ==
* United States Department of the Interior * American Imperialism * Conservation in the United States * Environmental history of the United States
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * ''The Global Interior'' at [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984257 Harvard University Press] *[https://www.meganablack.com/ Author's website] *[https://history.mit.edu/people/megan-a-black/ Megan A. Black MIT website]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Global Interior, The}} Category:English-language non-fiction books Category:Environmental non-fiction books Category:2018 non-fiction books Category:American history books Category:History books about the United States Category:Harvard University Press books Category:Environmental history of the United States