"Over the last three centuries, the Green Swamp in southeastern North Carolina has served as home to many communities and industries. It is also home to tremendous biodiversity and rare species, including the highest concentration of insectivorous plants in the world and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker." "The modern industrial incarnations of what have historically been two of the Lower Cape Fear's staple economic activities - forest industries and hog farming - have come under increased fire from environmentalist groups that decry the ongoing transformation of the area at the hands of large corporations. While communal values and practices at times mitigate the environmental and human ravages of capitalist economic development, the communities' cultural identities are nevertheless imagined, constructed, and maintained in ways that facilitate capitalist enterprise and direct the use and transformation of nature and community in accordance with the ideological premises of the capitalist worldview." "In this fascinating case study, Tycho de Boer highlights the complex relationship between the swamp, local inhabitants, and outside entrepreneurs as the community becomes aware of the competing goals of conservation and competition on the global market. Tracing the growth of agriculture and the turpentine and lumber industries from the mid-seventeenth century to the present, this work examines their impact, including the destruction of longleaf pine forests. In what at first appears to be counter-intuitive, this study also reveals how businesses in this region took a leading role in managing the environment. What emerges is an understanding of the uneasy balance between conservation and commerce."--Jacket.