Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.64 (826 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0295982209 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 360 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-11-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
As Sutter discovered, the founders of the Wilderness Society were "driven wild"--pushed by a rapidly changing country to construct a new preservationist ideal.Sutter demonstrates that the birth of the movement to protect wilderness areas reflected a growing belief among an important group of conservationists that the modern forces of capitalism, industrialism, urbanism, and mass consumer culture were gradually eroding not just the ecology of North America, but crucial American values as well. By 1935, the founders of the Wilderness Society had become convinced of the impossibility of doing both.In Driven Wild, Paul Sutter traces the intellectual and cultural roots of the modern wilderness movement from about 19
. Paul S. Sutter is associate professor of history at the University of Georgia
Nicely written; extensively referenced."Choice"Driven Wild is a fresh look at the origins of the wilderness movement that deserves a place on the shelf of both geographers and historiansAn excellent addition to conservation literature."Historical Geography"Driven Wild is an outstanding scholarly achievement and is one of the best books ever written about environmental politicsIt deserves to be read by a wide audience; there is no doubt that its conclusions are important and will frame further discussions about this aspect of American environmental history and policy."Electronic Green Journal"A superb studySutter's historical reexamination of the origins of wilderness policy is the most sop
"A surprisingly important history of wilderness theory in the 1920s" according to Arthur Digbee. This book is a nice example of how a close look at unfamiliar stories can help you reinterpret familiar stories. Environmental historians have focused on the classic conservation debates before World War I or on the modern debates from the New Deal or the 1960s onward. Sutter looks instead at the 1920s, focusing on four leading figures in the founding of The Wilderness Society. While Bob Marshall and Aldo Leopold are familiar figures, looking at the 1920s provides a reinterpretation of their intellectual evolution - - an interpretation that does not see this period in teleological terms as an evolving understanding of wilde. Focus on Wilderness and Wildness Based on his doctoral dissertation topic, Sutter does an excellent job focusing in on the origins of the wilderness movement from the 1910s through 1930s. Through chapters on Wilderness Society founders Aldo Leopold, Robert Sterling Yard, Benton MacKaye, and Bob Marshall, the author examines the thinking that led to the need to formally establish wilderness areas in the United States. He stresses concerns about captialism and mass consumption, road construction in the National Parks, and the role of the CCC in expanding building in natural areas. In addition, he explores the debate about the purpose and definition of "wildn. green chili reader said Low mileage examination. Environmental history is intrinsically faddish, and its appeal as a scholarly point of departure often has more in it of phrenology and the pet rock than its proponents would ever care to admit. This sad reality does not have to be self-defeating (as the transformative works of Louise Erdrich, Sue Hubbell, and Ursula LeGuin demonstrate). But for environmental history to serve effectively as a springboard to a more nuanced consideration of women and men’s relation to the land, it has to look forward. It has to stimulate. It has to hold out hope for a broader comprehension of both the human and ecological tragedy that h