| DREAMERS AND DEFENDERS: American Conservationists Douglas H. Strong Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988 (1971) |
Rating: 5.0 High |
|||
| ISBN-13 978-0-8032-9156-0 | ||||
| ISBN 0-8032-9156-6 | 295p. | SC/BWI | $15.00 | |
In every generation, there is a relative handful of men and women who see farther and deeper into the implications of the changes their countrymen are making so assiduously. For the conservation movement in America, those visionaries were mostly men — or at least, men, until recent times, were the ones who wielded power and influence.
This book relates brief biographies of the principal American conservationists, beginning with Thoreau, Olmstead and Marsh, and running through Rachel Carson, David Brower, and Barry Commoner of the generation just passing.
Each of these sketches gives a surprisingly thorough picture of its subject, discussing their principal accomplishments, their failures, their attitudes, and the historical contexts in which they worked. In most cases there is a portrait of the subject as well.
The book is very well written, free of typos, well researched, annotated, and indexed, and supplemented with a valuable bibliographical essay. While it does not cover the environmental movement in general, it is an excellent reference which I will keep.
| Chapter 1 The Forerunners: Thoreau, Olmstead, Marsh |
| Chapter 2 John Wesley Powell |
| Chapter 3 Gifford Pinchot |
| Chapter 4 John Muir |
| Chapter 5 Stephen Mather |
| Chapter 6 Aldo Leopold |
| Chapter 7 Harold Ickes |
| Chapter 8 Rachel Carson |
| Chapter 9 David Brower |
| Chapter 10 Barry Commoner |
| Conclusion |
| Notes |
| Bibliographical Essay |
| Index |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.