Wilderness and the American Mind, Fourth Edition

Customer Reviews:

When I read this in 1974, I wish I had had it in 1969/70.......2006-07-22

While not a perfect book, this is one of the few books I know which I would call "required reading" for people in the environmental movement and ecology. It's not a science book, which is one of my minor problems with it, but I titled this review comment with my opinion prior to taking the first of 2 classes (1974) by one of Nash's student colleagues and then Nash himself. I, and a slew of my colleagues in 1970 really needed to have read this during the organization and preparation for what was then termed "The First Environmental Teach-In" now called ridiculously "Earth Day."

I felt this way in 1974, because I could see that we had retrod ground done by Brower 2 decades earlier and Muir seven decades. And then I learned of names I had never heard before like G. Pinchot and the roles of people like John Wesley Powell independent of the Grand Canyon survey and Stephen Mather and the Natl. Park PR machine (not all bad). This book is part of why students are supposed to take history classes.

The 2nd ed (pub. 1973)., which I had and still have, covered events I lived and can confirmed happened. That's toward the end of the book. The beginning of the book are about pre-American precursors in Europe such as the Romantic movement and various humanist issues like painting and writing. Some of these parts were were a little slow for me (I did read Rousseau), but it did put the Black Forest in perspective more than a type of cake. And that helps with understanding forestry schools.

Nash is good in showing the development of the conservation movement (incl. soil reclamation and forestry [and why hunters and fishers are conservationists]) to the shortcoming of conservation and the start of preservation (Muir, Mather), and the latter shortcomings of "loving wilderness to death" and the rise of environmentalism and ecological biology (Nash likes Leopold, I prefer Rachel Carson, we agree on reading Ed Abbey).

Rod is good at tying together art, literature (here your transcendalists in American Literature come in), popular culture (recreation), religion (See his Rights of Nature book for more depth), and science (barely). He has a good bibliography, one of the finest that I have seen if you want more depth and references, but the field is pretty vast and Nash's text is already thick so his survey is at best described as shallow (supplementary reading like Doug Strong's The Conservationists helps).

Alaska in the 3rd ed. is important to the future. I have been given by Rod in the past "seed" copies, and I purchase "Wilderness" as gifts. I stopped doing that until recently when I was surprised a bio prof friend was unaware. I know he will enjoy reading "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel to get closer to the ceiling?"

I wish that Gaylord Nelson (then Sen., Wisc.) had had us read this book. I think that we would have gone further on that day in 1970. The book is just a shadow of the class experience, I leave lots of book detail out in this review/summary.

Wilderness: One of America's Most Important Ideas .......2005-12-27

Those who have been so quick to pronounce the "death" of environmentalism surely have not taken Roderick Frazier Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind into account. With roots in European Romanticism, and blossoming in mid-19th Century writings of Thoreau and Emerson, the idea of wilderness is one of the most important ideas America has contributed to the world.

The wilderness idea has no abler chronicler than Roderick Nash, whitewater rafting guide, adventurer, descendent of Canadian explorers and professor emeritus of environmental studies, who first published this book in 1967 and has taken it through four editions. His entertaining narrative covers the life of Muir and the early preservation struggles of The Sierra Club. He provides special insight into Aldo Leopold and sets the whole discussion of Leopold's land ethic in its historical context.

While wilderness is everywhere under assault, many still understand the continuing need to preserve our wilderness system, a network of wild areas free from all other human activities. In fact, it's difficult to come away from Nash's book without understanding that wilderness is an intrinsic American value.

The most articulate advocate of wilderness was Theodore Roosevelt, who believed the modern American was in danger of becoming an "overcivilized" man, who has lost strength and higher virtue in a trend toward "slothful ease." Nash gives great credit to Roosevelt and shows how his ideas and experiences contributed to later 20th Century concepts of environmental preservation.

America, according to Roosevelt, needed to preserve the remnants of the pioneer environment because, "no nation facing the unhealthy softening and relaxation of fibre that tends to accompany civilization can afford to neglect anything that will develop hardihood, resolution, and the scorn of discomfort and danger."

Wilderness evokes deep sentiments in the mystic chords of American memory. It is not merely a political movement thought up in the 1960s--a trend that will fade as baby boomers age and our present generation of environmental leaders moves on. Nash shows us how wilderness came to be that way and suggests the wilderness idea is likely to endure at the vital center of our national psyche.

Not perfect but still a classic thanks to regular updating.......2005-07-09

As the other reviews will confirm, this is a classic book on the American concept of wilderness. Nash wrote the first version in the 1960s, originally as his dissertation. The main narrative has held up well. Nash has also put the text through regular revisions, so it lacks any embarrassingly outdated claims that might detract from the book.

The first part of the book is an intellectual history of "wilderness." Wilderness may exist as a state of mind or as the product of an intellectual movement (as in Nash). This kind of analysis is invariably subjective and selective. Nash, like others engaged in this kind of history, draws from a subset of all the people who wrote on the topic at a given moment (and, as he recognizes, necessarily leaves out the views of people who don't write them down). Then, like others, he organizes this material, calling it a "Romantic" view of wilderness or whatever.

I find such exercises interesting but generally unpersuasive by their very nature. For example, Nash interprets the Bible and other foundational texts for Western civilization as embodying a "subdue the wilderness" ethos. Fine. But what of Jesus' reference to the "lilies of the field"? Certainly that implies a valuation of nature as beautiful and worthy in itself - - "Romantic," perhaps. My point is that anyone can always do this, and any intellectual history can always be criticized for leaving things out and thus mischaracterizing what it discusses.

That said, Nash is not too objectionable on that front. In fact, his categorization is helpful, and would be especially good as an introduction to these ideas. This is doubtless why this book is used in so many undergraduate ecology courses.

The second part of the book focuses on various battles over wilderness. Here he moves closer to a straight history. His narrative is forceful and engrossing.

The last chapter, on international issues, is really too superficial to be useful. It leaves the impression that he is trying to be complete with each new edition, without really having fresh insights into the subject.

Overall, the book is very well-written and easy to read - - I classify it as the kind of book that is good to read on an airplane (which is in fact where I read it).

Better for Environmentalists then Others.......2003-12-01

I believed that this book would be an exploration of the concept of "wilderness" as it relates to the American mind. And it is, for about one hundred pages. Since this is a four hundred page bok, that leaves a lot of space to fill.

I found the first two hundred pages to be interesting, the last two hundred to be a slog. Nash spends an interminable amount of time covering "contemporary" environmental struggles. Were it my book, I would have omitted the chapter about Alaska. I imagine that most who read this book have a grasp on the environmental struggles of the recent past.

As I mentioned before, the reason I read this book was to gain a perspecitve on how these struggles came about.

This book is, I suppose, a classic in the field. I guess, ultimately, it's just a field (environmentalism/ecology) that doesn't interest me that much. So I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it to others, unless those others consider themselves dedicated environmentalists. Then you HAVE to read this book.

The Most Serious Form of Pollution is Mind Pollution.......2003-09-01

This is an epic book about the American wilderness and what the author believes to be the causes leading to the degradation of cultural landscapes in America. Required reading for most environmental history and ecology courses, the book has been reprinted 19 times and revised 7 times since its publication in 1967 and is the largest selling book from Yale University Press. Unfortunately, the basic premises in this first edition, while reflecting popular wisdom during the Vietnam era, are unsupported, poorly documented, and perpetuate an "us versus them" environmentalist argument. Shame on academia today where these prejudices are propagated as mandatory reading without critical review: the theories of this first edition have not stood the test of time, rather clearly document the biases and ego the author deemed valid at 28 years old.

The most serious form of pollution is mind pollution and it started with Wilderness and the American Mind. Roderick Nash makes brash statements supported by unreliable secondary sources, incomplete research, gross generalizations and contradictory logic. He asserts that Americans "regarded the wilderness areas of this continent as a moral and physical wasteland to be conquered and fructified in the name of civilization, Christianity, and progress" (inside dust jacket). He further asserts that Americans were searching for a national culture after their independence from England. Without citations, Nash does express in the preface a legitimate concern that through a gradual transformation, these attitudes have largely been replaced with "one of appreciation." Without a formal classical language education and using Nelson's Bible Concordance (NY, 1957) to document the ancient meaning of Greek and Hebrew text, he erroneously quotes Scripture out of context to make general inaccurate arguments such as: "for the Christian, wilderness has long been a potent symbol applied to the moral chaos of the unregenerate" (p. 3); the Christian man "dreams of life without wilderness" (p. 9, without source); when the Lord wanted to punish people, "he found the wilderness condition to be his most powerful weapon" (p. 14); and because the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, "wilderness retained its significance as the environment of evil and hardship" (p. 17). Ironically, he contradicts these statements by acknowledging that "the importance of wilderness as a sanctuary was perpetuated in Christianity" (p. 17). After making a deductive argument with these inaccurate references, he concludes that Eastern cultures did not fear and abhor the wilderness because they were "freed from the combined weight of classicism, Judaism and Christianity" (p. 21). Nowhere was "classicism" addressed or proven that classicism, Judaism and Christianity somehow are in concert.

Roderick Nash's evidentiary support of civilization and man's progress are similarly flawed. Using secondary sources for sporadic primary quotes, such as "William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower into a `hideous and desolate wilderness,'" Nash concludes that the early settlers' "anticipations of a second Eden were quickly shattered against the reality of North America."

After rambling on of European events quoting personal experiences of William Bartram, William Byrd, Daniel Boone, James Pattie, and others (pp. 63-66), Nash proposes that the "appreciation of wilderness began in the cities" (p. 44). The flawed logic results from an assumption that only those in the city had the appropriate awareness of the wilderness. Nash states, "It was widely assumed that America's primary task was the justification of its newly won freedom" (p. 65). (Without a source, it is incomprehensible where this came from.) Trying to add credibility to an absurd argument, Nash sprinkles in a few quotes from David Thoreau and John Muir. Again, however, Nash is original in suggesting that Thoreau's "shocking" experience in the Maine woods (p. 91) caused Thoreau to lead "the intellectual revolution that was beginning to invest wilderness with attractive rather than repulsive questions." Nash should have stopped here.

Over the next 200 pages, he wanders aimlessly in literary wilderness. Chapters six through ten discuss history wilderness preservation efforts. Another Nash original idea is that Muir had an "intellectual debt to Thoreau and to primitivism" (p. 127). He gives Olmsted and Eliot token credit for the "patches near cities" (p. 155) as if to infer that urban landscape architecture has a relationship to wilderness. He further confuses the reader with his concept of the "great chain of being" developed since the Greeks. In this argument, he is unwilling to drop his prejudicial treatment of Jews and Christians, stating that the "Christian belief in the imminency of the end of the world make efforts to protect nature seem futile" (p. 193). Quoting Aldo Leopold, "the two great cultural advances of the past century were the Darwinian Theory and the development of geology,": Nash unequivocally states without evidence that "Both helped tear down the wall Christian thought had so carefully erected between man and other forms of life." (p. 193). Maybe Nash felt throwing rocks in the wilderness was a form of geology that might make his case more convincing.

If given a choice, any edition of Wilderness and the American Mind would not be on the list of required reading materials for a course in Environmental History. There are many more recent texts that make convincing logical arguments and are well supported. If the prospective reader wants to truly understand the issues related to religion and ecology, Nash lacks the credentials to make an argument. The most compelling indictment against Nash's credibility was his glaring absence at a series of seminars addressing the Religions of the World and Ecology held at Harvard University - his alma mater. Over a three year period, from 1996 to 1998 when Nash was a Professor of History and Environmental Studies at UCSB, the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions conducted research with "the direct participation and collaboration of over seven hundred scholars, religions leaders and environmental specialists around the world." (http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/)
Another excellent book on this subject is a series of documents and essays compiled by Carolyn Merchant, a professor in Environmental History at the University of California at Berkeley. The book titled, Major Problems in American Environmental History. (Lexington: DC Heath and Company, 1993) provides a more objective view of the issues in American ecology and traces development of landscapes from the earliest Indian civilizations to present. Merchant avoids the antagonism between religion and ecology by addressing both the good and bad realities in a sensitive and purposeful way.

This review was of the first edition. While subsequent editions have been published, the basic tenets of this review remain valid.

"The serious form of pollution is mind pollution," quote by Roderick Nash.

Book Description

In this brilliant, gracefully written, and important new book, former Secretary of the Interior and Governor of Arizona Bruce Babbitt brings fresh thought to questions of how we can build a future we want to live in.

We've all experienced America's changing natural landscape as the integrity of our forests, seacoasts, and river valleys succumbs to strip malls, new roads, and subdivisions. Too often, we assume that when land is developed it is forever lost to the natural world--or hope that a patchwork of local conservation strategies can somehow hold up against further large-scale development.

In Cities in the Wilderness, Bruce Babbitt makes the case for why we need a national vision of land use. We may have a space program, he points out, but here at home we don't have an open-space policy that can balance the needs for human settlement and community with those for preservation of the natural world upon which life depends. Yet such a balance, the author demonstrates, is as remarkably achievable as it is necessary. This is no call for developing a new federal bureaucracy; Babbitt shows instead how much can be--and has been--done by making thoughtful and beneficial use of laws and institutions already in place.

Babbitt draws on his extensive experience to take us behind the scenes negotiating the Florida Everglades restoration project, the largest ever authorized by Congress. In California, we discover how the Endangered Species Act has been employed to restore regional habitat. In the Midwest, we see how new World Trade Organization regulations might be used to help restore Iowa's farmlands and rivers. As a key architect of many environmental success stories, Babbitt reveals how broad restoration projects have thrived through federal- state partnerships and how their principles can be extended to other parts of the country.

In this inspiring and informative book, Babbitt offers a vision of land use as grand as the country's natural heritage.

Customer Reviews:

babbitt always knows best.......2007-01-10

Bruce Babbitt continues to labor under the self deception that he know best in determining the future of the "common people" his ideas always consume like serfs found to be useless in the feifdom. Read it for the future it suggests of an end to private property and a beginning of the sort of Stalinism and federal tyranny that Babbitt favors. Don't think it was written by any true westerner who "grew up on a ranch." It was written by a political lackey and opportunist who was kicked off his grandfather's spread in Arizona and has always yearned for power--especially power over what he calls the "agricultural apparatchiks."

Rational Thoughts on a Typically Irrational Topic.......2006-06-23

Babbitt begins by telling us that relentless building of highways have spearheaded landscape destruction as land speculators and developers follow. Local governments generally have neither the political will, expertise, nor financial resources to stand up to well-financed developers and their political contributions. Babbitt then goes on to make the case for federal leadership in making land use regulation more effective, and uses examples from his experience involving the Everglades, Southern California, and the Chesapeake Bay to make the point.

The shrinking Everglades problem was caused by farms, canals, dikes, housing developments; its solution began during the early '90s, and moved forward despite Congress' tilting towards reduced spending. The first step occurred when then Interior Secretary Babbitt met with the Army Corps of Engineers, and reached agreement with them to develop a study and proposal on changing the drainage system. There was also a problem with excess fertilizer draining from sugar plantations into the Everglades - causing cattails to displace natural saw grass. They agreed to cut their fertilizer applications in half (were using too much - at the chemical companies behest), and to plant cattails at the draining end of their fields to soak up the rest of the excess. (Babbitt points out that the "ideal" solution would have been to simply end expensive sugar subsidies, allow foreign sugar into the U.S. at much lower price, and allow the sugar plantations to revert to the Everglades.) Another requirement was buying out landowners "suckered" into buying swampland that were clamoring for more levees so they could use their land. The happy outcome was a proposal backed by all sides that was enacted by Congress in 2000. (Side Note: Everglade bog land used for sugar growing has a limited life anyway - it had already dried out, was blowing away, and sunk 12 feet, and had not much further to sink before reaching limestone.)

Babbitt learned in other efforts that it was much simpler to work on a project limited to a single state, and the importance of using sound science in administering the Endangered Species Act.

Babbitt points out that the federal government has always been involved in land-use planning - improving river navigability, surveying, staking out, and subsidizing transcontinental railroad routes, flood control projects, dams, interstate highways. While these efforts were all aimed at land development, he believes that it now time to also boost land conservation as well.

A good prescription for a "realistic" 21st century environmentalism.......2006-04-11

I use "realistic" in scare quotes as an alternative to "idealistic" environmentalism without commenting on the moral value or desirability of either approach.

Babbitt, Clinton's sole Secretary of the Interior, and governor of Arizona before that, is a career politician with a non-extractive industries Westerner's love of nature of his native land.

Those two come together in his thoughts for how the Endangered Species Act and the 1906 Antiquities Act, used in new ways, can be two of the cornerstones of a 21st century environmentalism, primarily in the West, but indeed nationally.

The other cornerstones are state lead-taking in land-use planning, in conjunction with federal support, and a new day in federal-state environmental cooperation in general.

More obvious observations about the anti-environmentalism of people like President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Congressman Richard Pombo aside, Babbitt offers a moderate amount, but not a great deal, of prescriptive specifics on how to do this.

His own success as Interior Secretary was constrained by the change of administrations.

Babbitt pushed Clinton into "new-style" national monuments remaining outside National Park Service control, such as Grand Staircase-Escalante NM in Utah and Giant Sequoia NM in California (not to be confused with Sequoia NP). The idea was that the landholding federal agency of record (the Bureau of Land Management in Utah and the National Forest Service in California) would develop a better conservationist ethic through being committed to national monument management of a monument that retained multi-use characteristics.

While this might be true to some degree of the BLM, it certainly isn't of the Forest Service, and likely won't be unless that agency sees a MAJOR shake-up. (My prescription: Move the Forest Service out of Agriculture and into Interior.)

That, and the book's relative slimness, keep it from a better rating, as it barely hits 4 stars.

Book Review.......2006-03-24

Cities in the Wilderness
By Bruce Babbitt

Book Review
By Dan Warren

In today's republican political arena with the Bush administrations compelling interest in land expansion the outlook for Environmental causes let along protection would appear to have a dark and gloomy cloud atop any progress. However, Bruce Babbitt the author of Cities in the Wilderness has some new innovative ideas about land use in America. As the U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001, governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987 and as Arizona's Attorney General for three years he brings with him experience and a most impressive track record of success in an effort that is largely opposed and unsuccessful; Environmental land preservation efforts and even restoration.
Within the pages of his book Babbitt gives illustrations of success and of failure. He provides detailed rational in each instance drawing on history, public opinion, media, legal requirements, county state and federal involvements, as well as a plethora of other mitigation factors that explain the success or failure. From these Babbitt pieces together an extraordinary working illustration of how we can be better stewards of our land in America.
Furthermore, whether directly or indirectly Babbitt addresses the political climate and gives examples of how to over come the counter movements that oppose his unique vision of land use. Within the confines of his five short easy to read straight forward chapters Babbitt is clear, concise, and well structured in order to piece his ideology together followed by appropriate explanation. His thesis is essentially a parallel, contrary to much of his opposition's belief, as will be detailed later in this review, that our country has historically viewed land development not as a local, county, or even State matter, but as a Federal matter. As such Babbitt will contend that we need to continue to have a Federal interest in land use and development while making a joining effort with more localities but still governed by Federal legislation and direction.
As a native Floridian the everglades are a state treasure. Anyone who has ever driven route one through this magnificent area will feel immersed in nature. For anyone who has not experienced this, all you have to do is watch CBS's hit show CSI: Miami and in most of the episodes as well as in the shows introduction can get a glimpse of what the everglades are from viewing it across their television sets. However, this schema that will be created by this in no way gives justice to the real thing. While either which way will introduce you to the Florida Everglades, it will not reveal its unique history.
In Babbitt's first chapter he uses his experience with the preservation of the Everglades as an introduction to his idea. The devastation caused by hurricane Andrew in the early 1990's also included the destruction of Homestead Air force base in Florida. In the aftermath the government came to the decision to not to rebuild this base, but rather to sell the property commercially for redevelopment. The proposed plan was initially to make the property into a jet port thus generating jobs and commerce. While at first glance this idea makes serves to help the many who became jobless with the closure of the Air force base, it was highly controversial because the proposed site was only miles from the entrance to the everglades.
The balancing of these two conflicting interests: land preservation and development for the sake of commerce is the first conflict that Babbitt faces. It is within these conflicts that are the heart of his book and subsequently in looking at each of these that the most benefit for policy and future decision can be justified on. In this particular issue Babbitt allied with the Army Core of Engineers, a most unexpected partnership. The Army Core who wants to build and Babbitt whose interests are to protect creates a uniquely original idea; the two can actually achieve preservation by essentially constructing preservation.
As pointed out by Babbitt, in earlier years it was the Army Core of Engineers who by direct engineering was in-directly causing devastating affects to the Everglades. As such the remedy was to undo that which was previously done by the efforts of the Army Core of Engineers. While this sounds simple in concept it was very costly and took great effort before it would be later approved for its application. So what exactly would this "undoing" so to speak entail? It would set a new precedent, we would actually spend money not to development but essentially to UN-develop already developed land and for what cause, to preserve the Everglades. This is essentially a step in a new direction in favor of environmental preservation. However, this did not come easily or without coincidence. It was a project that took over eight years, had an eight billion dollar price tag, and according to Babbitt, "the everglades success was an aberration, a case of being in the right place when in came to make a down payment on a presidential election" .
So what is there to be learned from this experience and success in the Everglades? Babbitt goes on to say,
"is there an urgent lesson to be derived from the Florida Everglades, it is that we must invent new federal-state partnerships for managing and restoring our lands, partnerships that have sufficient charisma and public support to withstand destructive efforts by later administrations. Which leads us back to the central question posed: could the Everglades effort mark the beginning of a national commitment to large-scale restoration of degraded ecosystems" ?
The answer to Babbitt's question is two fold. In law when a case is decided the decision is called stare decisis which essentially equates to a precedent that other cases can be decided upon. In the same this narrowly tailored example does in its most simplistic form create a sort of precedent that may act as a catalyst or at least a reference to which other matters related to land conservation can be decided upon.
As Babbitt moves on in his book he provides another success story in California however this is contrasted with a failure Mississippi. In a later chapter Babbitt faces a new conflict of interests. The issue at essence here is a legal one, it involves the interpretation of what constitutes an endangered species and how exactly the Endangered Species Act is used in conjuncture with the rights of landowners. The discussion centers on an endangered bird. What is truly interesting in this example drawn from Babbitt's personal experience is that it utilized a scientific research study in order to investigate the natural habitat of the endangered species so as to have an information base to which decisions can be based off rather then guestimating. Again Babbitt's efforts were successful; however he cited that this is due to good press and public support.
The Endangered Species Act was the legal key to success according to the author. It provided the legal authority to act and to protect in this case. What seems difficult about this is the actually application of the act itself. From the text it does not appear that there is a guideline as to how to implement the acts authority and for the most part serves as a guideline that is to be implemented on the local level and the only Federal participation is to create the act itself but does not provide any governing agency to enforce the act. Rather it relies on its compliance at the local level who it seems in most instances are the ones opposing the act as it in most cases reduces expansion and thus tax revenues for that city, county, or even state.
An interesting remark made by the author is that when it comes to The Endangered Species Act, it is not proactive in protecting but rather reactive in that it does not take affect until after the damage is done. What is gained from this is the ideology that perhaps we need to be proactive with our environment, land use, and species conservation. As with youth we try to teach intervention programs that seek to solve the problem of juvenile delinquency before it starts, in the same we need to solve environmental concerns before they start. Again with this parallel prevention programs cost far less and have much less damage when successful with juveniles as this applies to our environment. We spent 8 billion to undo land development that we had already paid to have developed. Here if we add the research and science base before we make a decision we can avoid these types of environmental concerns before they even exist.
In subsequent chapters Babbitt applies the concepts thus far discussed to the Midwest in regional restoration. He does a great job of finding money in already current budgets to use towards restoration efforts. For instance he mentions a fifteen million dollar account used for a farm program account. Babbitt also explains that all that needs to occur for this to work is to make it into the farmer's best interests to embrace this program and with the requirements of the global economy they will be more then willing.
One molecule of oxygen and two of hydrogen create the world's universal solvent and the substance that sustains life on earth: water. The tragedy is that we are wasting it. Again returning to the argument that we need not leave matters to a localized government, but rather we must make them a federal concern, water with all of its importance needs be a chief central concern. As brought up by Buttell, one avenue in promoting environmentalism is a global view point. Babbitt does a good job emphasizing the importance of making water a Federal matter in the U.S. (as his book's title contains the phrase "Land use in America", I feel that on a matter as internationally important as water it only makes sense to start at the top being Federally regulated and then enforced on each level. Again how we Federally regulate it is just as important but I think we can take this a step further and Internationally regulate water as it is more important then any petroleum based resource, everyone globally needs it to survive and I think more emphasis should be given to this concern, not specifically to this text as again it seeks to speak out about U.S. policy, but rather in other avenues.
While Babbitt's text has a feel good syntax to it, his conclusion brings reality back into play. He finishes up by giving an impressive history and emphasizes the importance of our land. He goes so far as to call it an "American Treasure". Despite this he ends his text with
"Today, however, our public land institutions are under unprecedented attack from both the president and the Congress. This is a season for all Americans to take renewed interest in defending their heritage- the freedom and glory of wide open public spaces."
This call to action that he ends with is a powerful one. However, I am doubtful that with the low voting rates of my generation and the ignorance we as a country have towards our Environment I am weary of our future. Will we use the powerful tools that Babbitt has empowered us with; will we be proactive and preventative rather then responsive after the fact before we have done irreversible harm to our Continent? These questions are serious and meaningful and will affect later generations of Americans.

Excellent Read About Land Use.......2006-03-18

I enjoyed reading about bruce Babbit's interpretation of where land use should focus in the years to come. He also laid the groundwork for the development process for several urban areas and national parks. I found it to be a very worthwhile read and I would recommend it to othere.

Imposing Wilderness: Struggles over Livelihood and Nature Preservation in Africa (California Studies in Critical Human Geography)

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Imposing Wilderness: Struggles over Livelihood and Nature Preservation in Africa (California Studies in Critical Human Geography)
Roderick P. Neumann
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0520234685

Book Description

Arusha National Park in northern Tanzania, known for its scenic beauty, is also a battleground. Roderick Neumann's illuminating analysis shows how this park embodies all the political-ecological dilemmas facing protected areas throughout Africa. The roots of the ongoing struggle between the park on Mount Meru and the neighboring Meru peasant communities go much deeper, in Neumann's view, than the issues of poverty, population growth, and ignorance usually cited. These conflicts reflect differences that go back to the beginning of colonial rule. By imposing a European ideal of pristine wilderness, Neumann says, the establishment of national parks and protected areas displaced African meanings as well as material access to the land. He focuses on the symbolic importance of natural landscapes among various social groups in this setting and how it relates to conflicts between peasant communities and the state.

Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks

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A depressing perspective on the history of US national parks
Good book, good idea, but....
Good book, good idea, but....
Yosemite established ties with the wrong tribe.
Excellent case studies, great photographs and illustrations

Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks
Mark David Spence
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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American Indians & National Parks
Indian Country, God's Country: Native Americans And The National Parks
Changes in the Land, Revised Edition: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History

ASIN: 0195142438

Book Description

National parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier preserve some of this country's most cherished wilderness landscapes. While visions of pristine, uninhabited nature led to the creation of these parks, they also inspired policies of Indian removal. By contrasting the native histories of these places with the links between Indian policy developments and preservationist efforts, this work examines the complex origins of the national parks and the troubling consequences of the American wilderness ideal. The first study to place national park history within the context of the early reservation era, it details the ways that national parks developed into one of the most important arenas of contention between native peoples and non-Indians in the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

A depressing perspective on the history of US national parks.......2007-10-03

This book examines how the National Park Service removed Indians from their traditional lands while constructing the idea of "wilderness" in the national parks. This idea differs from the original idea of wilderness, which encompassed vast spaces inhabited by both Indians and wildlife. Once white Americans came to think of "wilderness" as "devoid of people," the Indians had to go.

Spence demonstrates this claim with respect to three parks, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Yosemite. Yosemite poses an interesting contrast to the other two, in that Native Americans continued to live in the Valley until the end of 1996 - - though most were gone several decades before then. By having some variation in the cases, Spence gets more leverage out of this story than Philip Burnham's "Indian Country, God's Country," though Burnham covers more tribes and parks.

By grounding the story in a larger narrative about the conception of wilderness, Spence also makes this story *matter* in ways that Burnham does not - - Burnham's book became a familiar litany of injustices, while Spence's makes sense of the injustices beyond simply complaining about them. This gives him a stronger foundation on which to think about issues that Burnham struggles with, such as finding alternative roles for indigenous people in protected areas in developing countries, or the role of Native Alaskans in Alaskan national parks and preserves.

I've spent much of this review contrasting Spence with Burnham because they cover overlapping ground and appeared at roughly the same time. Both are worth reading, but I think Spence has the stronger overall book.

Good book, good idea, but...........2007-01-10

I like the concept of writing about the conflict with the Indians that lived in the park. The problem is the information. I am a descendent of the original Indians of Yosemite and there is a problem. The defintion "Some of them are killers" for Yosemite was fabricated in 1978 and is not the original meaning of Yosemite. The real meaning was "The Killers" or "The Grizzlies" because the Miwoks were afraid of the Ahwahnees. It was Chief Bautista and Russio, who were helping the Mariposa Battalion, who coined that term "Yosemite" for the Indians in Yosemite Valley which they were afraid to enter. It is because the Miwoks were once enemies of Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahnees. 30 years Yosemite National Park Service hired a person named Craig Bates who was married to a Miwok woman and had a 1/2 Miwok son who created that new defintion. So it is increble that ONE person changed the meaning and defintion of one of the most important and well known parks in the whold world...and no one noticed. The Miwoks were actually the scouts and guides for James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion, but you would not know it because the information was controlled by the "Indian expert" at Yosemite, which causes wrong information to be written...like the actual defintion of Yosemite.

Good book, good idea, but...........2007-01-10

Yosemite established ties with the wrong tribe........2005-09-26

I like the book, but Yosemite NPS DID NOT establish ties with the original Native Americans. Instead Yosemite NPS established and hired Indians who moved into the park to work in the 1900s. Yosemite mistakenly now keeps ties with Yokuts and not with the original Yosemites Indians.

They Yosemite NPS has hired a park ethnologist who we believe does not have a degree, but was married to a Miwok woman. He has been re-writing the true history of the Indian people in Yosemite. Sad, but true.

Excellent case studies, great photographs and illustrations.......2004-11-18

In Dispossessing the Wilderness, Mark Spence, an Assistant Professor of History at Knox College, Illinois, delivers a well-researched volume on a chapter of American Indian history that has gone largely unnoticed. The book tells the story of the National Park Service removing American Indians so that the landscape in each park could be more "natural and fit the common perceptions of nature. The conception of wilderness without natives was so powerful that early preservationists dismissed or ignored evidence of native use and habitation. For instance, Yellowstone National Park management of the 1870s and 1880s felt that the Native American threatened game even when government surveys revealed game numbers were on the rise.

Most national parks expelled Indians early on in their history. Yosemite proved the anomaly in NPS-tribal relations. Unlike Yellowstone and Glacier, the native populations remained long after establishment of the park. Early park management felt Yosemite Indians had a moral right to stay. Tourists expected and enjoyed viewing Indians in their "natural" state. For nearly 20 years the park gloried in its Indian past by hosting an "Indian Field Days" festival. The Indians made a living from tourists by selling their wares and working for the NPS or its concessionaires. After relative peace with the Park Service for over 50 years, the native population became a victim of the growing sentiment that creating a "natural" setting in national parks meant excluding of natives. Yosemite management effectively forced the natives to vacate their ancestral village site and move to small cabins. The NPS exercised near dictatorial control over cabin residents. When each family left, its cabin was destroyed to prevent another family from laying claim on it. In effect, relocating the Indians to the cabins was a long term-plan to wield more control over the Indians and slowly expel them in a way that would not raise a fuss among Indian advocates. The plan succeeded when the last Indian families vacated the cabins in the 1960s. Fortunately the Yosemite Indians still have a presence in the park, in the form of an Indian cultural center on the site of the former cabins.

The book relates much of the same information as Robert Keller and Michael Turek's volume American Indians and National Parks, but more succinctly and with better visual aids. Mingled with the narrative are excellent photos, illustrations and maps with thorough explanations in their captions. One such illustration fully demonstrates the bad blood that existed between the Blackfeet and Glacier National Park administrators by depicting then NPS director Horace Albright kneeling within the boundaries of the park with sharp claws extended trying to grasp the Blackfeet reservation (97).

For a volume focusing on Native Americans' relationship with NPS management, it also contains other pertinent historical information on national parks. The book's scope is narrow - it only explains Indian-white relations in Yellowstone, Glacier and Yosemite national parks. This confined breadth has its advantages in a detailed story of Native American-park management relations in each park, but may leave the reader wanting more. The book's epilogue does contain a brief summary of Indian situations in Grand Canyon National Park, Death Valley National Park, and a few parks in Alaska. For further reading on other parks, those interested will need to turn to Keller and Turek's volume as well as Indian Country, God's Country by Philip Burnham and Inhabited Wilderness, by Theodore Catton.

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Revised Wildlands workers' handbook
James R Brunner
Manufacturer: Wildlands Workers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0971121117

Windshield Wilderness: Cars, Roads, and Nature in Washington's National Parks (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)

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Windshield Wilderness: Cars, Roads, and Nature in Washington's National Parks (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)
David Louter
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)
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The Seattle Bungalow: People And Houses, 1900-1940 (A Samuel & Althea Stroum Book)

ASIN: 0295986069

Book Description

In his engaging book Windshield Wilderness, David Louter explores the relationship between automobiles and national parks, and how together they have shaped our ideas of wilderness. National parks, he argues, did not develop as places set aside from the modern world, but rather came to be known and appreciated through technological progress in the form of cars and roads, leaving an enduring legacy of knowing nature through machines.

With a lively style and striking illustrations, Louter traces the history of Washington State's national parks -- Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades -- to illustrate shifting ideas of wilderness as scenic, as roadless, and as ecological reserve. He reminds us that we cannot understand national parks without recognizing that cars have been central to how people experience and interpret their meaning, and especially how they perceive them as wild places.

Customer Reviews:

New edition is even better .......2007-10-05

It is no surprise that the Fifth Edition of this unique medical reference is better than ever. For those who are new to this authoritative tome, you will immediately notice how well it is organized to help those in an emergency effectively find the answers they need. The chapters cover Mountain Medicine, Cold and Heat, Burns, Fire and Radiation, Rescue and Survival, Injuries and Medical Intervention, Animals Insects and Zoonoses, Plants, Food and Water, Marine Medicine, Travel and Environmental Hazards, Equipment, Special Populations (issue related to children and the elderly) and the Wilderness.

Every subject is carefully explained so the medical injuries surrounding the subject can be identified and understood in context and with greater detail. For example, to understand how to rescue someone from an avalanche, the reader must understand how avalanches are formed. The book also goes into detail on rescue equipment and their correct use as well as proper self and organized rescues before discussing medical treatments for avalanche victims.

The bulk of the book consists of chapters regarding various injuries and conditions encompassing symptomology, description diagnostic techniques (tests and such) that can be employed, treatment options, and the range of expected prognoses--in a nutshell, what is the likely injury, how do we treat it, and what's the outlook in terms of cure and survival.

A wealth of reliable, understandable information is readily accessible primarily targeting the medical professional but also for the lay person accompanied by very helpful illustrations.

The update is most welcome, as the area of wilderness medicine has grown significantly beyond rescue of mountain climbers to the practice of medicine in situations of constrained resource, during times of catastrophe like 9/11 or Katrina and often in appalling conditions. This new edition also identifies new and better treatments of everything from high-altitude pulmonary and cerebral edema to heart stroke.

The PDR for wilderness injuries & related illnesses.......1997-07-25

Foregoing knowledge of the existance of this text was unkown, until it was needed in an emergent situation on site. At that time a stingray injury required our immediate attention. With no previous experience in this kind of injury, the book provided immediate no frills information on treatment, backup care and procedures. After this experience, I carefully examined the text at length and was amazed at the comprehensive nature of the topic that was covered. I would recommend this text to be present in all health care provider libraries and offices, as it is in mine. Dr. H.J. Willis D.O. Emergency & Trauma Physicia

Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness, Special Edition, with an Appreciation of Guy Waterman

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A must have for any student of the wilderness.

Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness, Special Edition, with an Appreciation of Guy Waterman
Laura Waterman , and Guy Waterman
Manufacturer: Countryman Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Good Morning Midnight

ASIN: 0881502561

Book Description

This classic text of environmental advocacy explores the philosophical issues of what makes the wilderness "wild," and suggests what we must do to keep it that way. Without some management, the world's wilderness cannot survive the number of people who seek to enjoy it. But with too much management, or the wrong kind, we will destroy the spiritual component of "wildness" in our zeal to preserve its physical side. With humor and insight, the Watermans look beyond the ecology of the backcountry to explore the factors that make it wild and consider the most difficult wilderness management issues facing us today. The huge increase in the popularity of recreational hiking and camping since the original publication of this book makes its message even more relevant today and its potential audience even larger.

Customer Reviews:

A must have for any student of the wilderness........2002-05-12

This book introduces the basic values of preserving "wild" places. Good for any person who loves the outdoors, especially young people and students who may need a lesson in values.

Nuclear Waste Stalemate: Political and Scientific Controversies

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Nuclear Waste Stalemate: Political and Scientific Controversies
Robert Vandenbosch , and Susanne E Vandenbosch
Manufacturer: University of Utah Press
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ASIN: 0874809037

This Grand and Magnificent Place: The Wilderness Heritage of the White Mountains (Revisiting New England: the New Regionalism)

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This Grand and Magnificent Place

This Grand and Magnificent Place: The Wilderness Heritage of the White Mountains (Revisiting New England: the New Regionalism)
Christopher Johnson
Manufacturer: New Hampshire
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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White Mountain Wilderness: A Photographic Journey to New Hampshire's Most Rugged Places
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ASIN: 1584654619

Book Description

This is the complex story of New Hampshire's White Mountains, from the range's days as the majestic homeland of the Abenaki, first seen by English colonists four centuries ago, to its unassailable standing today as one of America's most beloved national forests, comprising 112,000 acres of protected wilderness.

Christopher Johnson, an avid hiker intimately familiar with the White Mountains, achieves two important objectives in This Grand and Magnificent Place. He lovingly explores their rich ecological, political, economic, and cultural history and, more broadly, opens a panoramic window on the evolution of American attitudes and policies toward wilderness over time.

Two competing visions of wilderness historically have coexisted in America: the instrumental, in which the wilderness is seen as a conglomeration of resources to be exploited for the benefit of entrepreneurs and consumers, and the aesthetic, in which the wilderness is appreciated for its natural beauty, the personal growth that it stimulates, the national pride it engenders, and the spiritual truth it offers. Johnson never loses sight of this fundamental dichotomy as he shares marvelous true tales of the first intrepid European settlers who "tamed" the Whites. He discusses Ethan Allen Crawford, the area's first innkeeper, the emergence of tourism, and America's love affair with the "wilderness experience"; and he explores tales of Thomas Cole, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other renowned artists who immortalized these mountains in their works. He considers the coming of grand resort hotels--and the contemporaneous wilderness revival--in the late nineteenth century and the passing of the landmark 1911 Weeks Act, which was instrumental in preserving American wilderness in the face of development and threats of irreparable environmental damage. Johnson traces the perilous course of the twentieth-century movement toward wilderness preservation, which has successfully conserved the Whites, an extraordinary American treasure, for future generations. Finally, he poses thoughtful and essential questions regarding the destiny of this American wilderness, exploring the balance between maintaining its usefulness while conserving its glorious heritage.

This skillful and accessible history will rivet general readers, students, and professionals interested in the history, culture, and politics of the White Mountains, as well as those fascinated by environmental history and wilderness protection everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

This Grand and Magnificent Place.......2007-02-01

I am about halfway through reading this book, which is a new purchase for the Wentworth Library in Sandwich, NH. After all the books that have been written about White Mountain history and background, I found this new work intriguing in its depth and excellence. I first came across much of the legend and lore portrayed in here while attending the last UNH Forestry Camp at Passaconaway in 1964. We were too rowdy a bunch for this institution to continue further, but it introduced me to the beauty of these unique mountains and Doc Stevens fascinated me with their stories. I climbed Mt. Trypyramid with Keith Kidder as my first 4,000 footer, clambering up the slide to the Middle Peak as described herein by pioneer trampers. Later, I would work at Mizpah Hut for the AMC and pack to many of the huts in the summer of 1965. I missed the mountains like crazy while in the Army, so convinced my friend Fred Stetson to accompany me on a week long trip in the Pemi following Flight School. He has been visiting and writing about this mountainous area ever since, too. Efforts to describe and paint the experience of the White Mountains continue to produce historic memories of the past, and this book indeed does the job. I especially like the portrayals of Thomas Cole and Hawthorne, and how the region has stimulated considerable aesthetic reflections and deep intelligent regard. There is something truly inspirational here, and I enjoy introducng my friends from afar with why I am stuck on the place. It is grand in its magnificence; nothing compares to it, despite attempts to try. I am too old now to climb all like I used to, but I can still read about these summits and regain the reasons I originally chose to live out my life here. This book will be a keeper to relish this wild region so special to us....

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