This book was intended as the first volume in a two-volume series on the United States. Volney believed that moral and cultural norms arose from a nation's physical circumstances. Physical characteristics such as climate, soil, natural resources, etc, give rise to a nation's laws and customs. For instance, Bedoin nomads living in the deserts of North Africa would develop a different set of moral codes than Germanic tribes living in the forests of Europe--in a word, physical circumstances generate cultural norms.

Hence, "Soil and Climate" was to be followed by a second volume describing the country's political, cultural and economic systems--a kind of pre-Tocqueville version of Democracy in America. However on his return to Paris, Volney got sick (probably a result of a fever he acquired during his visits to the Nile and Ohio rivers) and never finished the second volume. (NOTE: For you Tocqueville fans out there, look up references to Volney and this book in the index of "Democracy in America." )

While many of Volney's observations on weather and soil are now outdated, the Appendix remains of great interest: here Volney describes the unfortunate circumstances of French settlers in the Ohio valley who got scammed in the so-called Scioto scheme. Note also in his description of Post-Vincennes on the Wabash that Volney proposes a General Principle which explains why France lost the war for North America: "French colonists talk too much among themselves ("causer") while their Anglo-Saxon competitors work in the fields." According to E. Wilson Lyon, these notes on the situation of the French cultured colonists in North America were presented to Napoleon Bonaparte as evidence he should sell Louisiana Territory to Thomas Jefferson. Also see Barbe-Marbois' famous book on the Louisiana Purchase entitled "History of Louisiana." In the chapter entitled "Cession of Louisiana by France to the United States," Barbe-Marbois repeats Volney's analysis of the French vs. Anglo-Saxon colonists almost word for word--just another (unrecognized) example of Volney's influence on Napoleon Bonaparte and that great land deal Americans call The Louisiana Purchase.

The Appendix also includes a general description of Native Americans in the Ohio Valley which is not exactly flattering. Volney always wrote what he saw, accurately and without passion or sentimentalism (read Chateaubriand). He did consider living among them to get a better, more balanced reading but was warned against undertaking that project. More generally, Volney's less than politically correct description of "the savages" has another object. I have written elsewhere that Volney's Ruins of Empires represents a refutation of the theories of J.J. Rousseau. One of Rousseau's most pernicious theories was the notion that "the Savage Man is more moral than the Civilized Man." From Volney's viewpoint, this description of Native Americans in the Ohio Valley is evidence that Rousseau was wrong. (Yes, I did use the word 'pernicious.' Check out the Disney cartoon-film "Spirit" to see but one example of this pernicious theory at work in our society today.)

For you linguists out there, Volney also includes in the Appendix a "Vocabulary of the Miama language." For you non-linguists out there, note that upon his death Volney established an annual "prize" for research in linguistics. Today, this prize is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the field. It is still awarded annually by the Institute in Paris where Volney worked during the Bonaparte years.

Final Note: this English-language translation of "Soil and Climate" was published in a single volume in London in 1804. The original French edition was published in Paris in 1803 in two volumes.