Diana Muir Appelbaum

Diana Muir, also known as Diana Muir Appelbaum, is a Newton, Massachusetts historian best known for her 2000 book Reflections in Bullough's Pond, a history of the impact of human activity on the New England ecosystem.

Diana Muir Appelbaum
Born
Diana Karter
OccupationAuthor
Historian
Spouse(s)Paul S. Appelbaum
Children3 including Yoni Appelbaum and Binyamin Appelbaum
Parent(s)Elizabeth Whitman Karter
Peter Karter
FamilyTrish Karter (sister)

Personal life

Appelbaum was born and raised in the small town of Old Lyme, Connecticut. She attended Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City.[1] Her parents are Elizabeth Carmen (née Whitman) and nuclear engineer Peter Karter (bon Patayonis Karteroulis).[2] Her paternal grandparents were Greek. Her sister is entrepreneur Trish Karter. She is married to Paul S. Appelbaum, a psychiatrist and professor at Columbia University with whom she has co-authored articles. They have three adult children, Binyamin Appelbaum; Yoni Appelbaum; and Avigail Appelbaum.[3]

Reflections in Bullough's Pond

According to the Daily News Tribune, "Muir's book Reflections in Bullough's Pond reads more like a novel than a history book. In the book, Muir shows the historical relationship between New England's economy and the environment. She expands the relationship into a national and global analysis of America's, and the world's, current environmental and political problems: global warming, ozone depletion, and Middle East oil dependence, to name a few. Muir claims America's oil dependent economy has hit a dead end. Muir argues that Americans can, and must, make economic changes to alleviate their environmental and political problems."[4]

Muir draws on many academic disciplines in her work, as the Boston Globe put it:

She's an economist. Then, again, maybe she's really an ecologist. Although some book critics and readers consider her a New England historian. Actually, Newton author Diana Muir is probably all of the above... Although her book was well received by economic historians who like to look at how industries rise and fall, Muir doesn't call herself a lay economist. "I'm an historian," she said. "And it seems to me that any intelligent person has to enjoy nature and care about the environment, and so those interests all came together." So, she's a shameless environmentalist, too.[5]

Environmentalism

Muir, an environmental historian, is a critic of American choice of "profitability over sustainability."[1] She has been called "Malthusian,"[6] and a "shameless environmentalist."[7] She has written a column for the Massachusetts Sierran, the magazine of the Massachusetts Sierra Club.[8]

Children's books

Muir is the author of two acclaimed picture books for children, Giants in the Land and Cocoa Ice.[9]

Other work

Genetics and identity

Muir has published a number of articles on genetics and ethnicity,[10][11] defending the position that ethnicity is a matter of language and customs, not genetic descent.[12]

Thanksgiving and The Glorious Fourth

Muir is the author of histories of the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Sociologist Amitai Etzioni has called Muir's books key works in the social history of holidays.[13]

Books

Books for children

Articles
  • "Biblical nationalism and the sixteenth-century states". National Identities. Informa UK. 15 (4): 317–332. 2013. doi:10.1080/14608944.2013.814624. ISSN 1460-8944. S2CID 144096460.
  • "The Gene Wars", with Paul S. Appelbaum, Azure, Winter 5767 / 2007, No. 27[11]
  • "A Land without a People for a People without a Land", Middle Eastern Quarterly, Spring 2008, Vol. 15, No. 2[14]
  • "The Rootless Roma". The American Interest. 6 (4). 1 March 2011.
  • "Jewish Identity and Egyptian Revival Architecture", Journal of Jewish Identities, summer 2012

References
  1. Floyd, Jesse A. (July 1, 2000). "Travelling Through Time". The Newton Tab. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  2. "Elizabeth Whitman "Bunt" Karter". Hartford Courant. October 26, 2004.
  3. Brendel, Martina (April 2007). "Alumni Updates: Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum '72 Comes Home to Columbia". Columbia College Today.
  4. Hartman, Ben (December 14, 2001). "Why is New England's landscape different from the rest of the United States?". Daily News Tribune. Diana Muir Appelbaum. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  5. Warsh, David (August 20, 2000). "Reclaiming the Commons". The Boston Globe. Diana Muir Appelbaum. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  6. Donahue, Brian, The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord, 2004, p. 264
  7. 'Reflections' wins the Massachusetts Book Award for the best non-fiction book published in 2000, Kenneth Rapoza, The Boston Globe, December 9, 2001
  8. "Massachusetts Sierran". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-24.
  9. " 'giants' Makes Children's book List," by Erica Noonan, Boston Globe, December 3, 2000
  10. Genetics and the Jewish Identity with Paul S. Appelbaum, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 11, 2008
  11. The Gene Wars Archived 2008-01-13 at the Wayback Machine with Paul S. Appelbaum, Azure, Winter 5767 / 2007, No. 27
  12. Nature versus nurture, by Robert Miller, News Times, Aug. 2, 2008
  13. "Flirting and Flag-waving, the revealing story of holidays and rituals." Amitai Etzioni, Chronicle of Higher Education (December 11, 2002)
  14. Diana Muir, "A Land without a People for a People without a Land", Middle Eastern Quarterly, Spring 2008, Vol. 15, No. 2
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