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The Geographical Review April 1998, Vol. 88 (2), pp. 275-300 "THE END OF MODERN HISTORY?" MICHAEL WILLIAMS ABSTRACT: The first half of the twentieth century marked both an endto confidence in human control of the earth and a prelude to thecontemporary era of intense environmental concern after 1950.This conspectus of the environmental history/historical geographyof the transitional years between 1900 and 1950 focuses on risingconcerns over resource supplies and exploitation, particularlyland settlement, timber supplies, soil erosion, and river-basincontrol. Conservation and the pervasiveness of ecological thinkingand analogy form a strong underlying theme. Keywords: ecology, environmental history, historical geography, human­land relationships, land settlement, resource exploitation, soil erosion, water control. DR. WILLIAMS is a professor of geography and the director of the Environmental Change and Management program at the University of Oxford, Oxford, England OX1 3TB.