Prof. Drew Swanson's 2nd book, A Golden Weed: Tobacco and Environment in the Piedmont South (Yale UP, 2014), explores the social, environmental, cultural, and racial history of the Piedmont. Prof. Swanson argues that tobacco, which was ultimately damaging to the environment, actually made agrarian and financial sense for the southern planters. Prof. Swanson teaches courses in environmental and U.S. history at WSU.
