Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness

by David Gessner

Overview

“A rallying cry in the age of climate change.” —Robert Redford

An environmental clarion call, told through bestselling author David Gessner’s wilderness road trip inspired by America’s greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt.

“Leave it as it is,” Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. “The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” Roosevelt’s rallying cry signaled the beginning of an environmental fight that still wages today. To reconnect with the American wilderness and with the president who courageously protected it, acclaimed nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner embarks on a great American road trip guided by Roosevelt’s crusading environmental legacy.

Gessner travels to the Dakota badlands where Roosevelt awakened as a naturalist; to Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon where Roosevelt escaped during the grind of his reelection tour; and finally, to Bears Ears, Utah, a monument proposed by Native Tribes that is embroiled in a national conservation fight. Along the way, Gessner questions and reimagines Roosevelt’s vision for today.

As Gessner journeys through the grandeur of our public lands, he tells the story of Roosevelt’s life as a pioneering conservationist, offering an arresting history, a powerful call to arms, and a profound meditation on our environmental future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982105044
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

David Gessner is the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestseller All the Wild That Remains. He has taught environmental writing as a Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard and is currently a professor and department chair at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he founded the award-winning literary journal Ecotone. Gessner lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Prelude: Theodore on the Edge 1

Chapter 1 Into the Badlands 9

Chapter 2 Teddyland 39

Interlude: Theodore Absorbed 69

Chapter 3 Complicated Nature 79

Chapter 4 The Cowboy Problem 105

Interlude: The Yosemite Summit 133

Chapter 5 Monumental 141

Chapter 6 Confluence 165

Interlude: Theodore Descends 209

Chapter 7 Under Siege 219

Chapter 8 Fight and Flight 253

Postlude: The West from Above 273

Acknowledgments 285

Appendix: Proclamations 291

Appendix: Voices 307

Recommended Reading 315

Illustration Credits 323

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

"Gessner gives us a new Theodore Roosevelt for our times. As he travels through our national monuments and parks, he considers ways we can make 'America’s best idea' even better, uniting the park ideal with the Native ideals behind the creation of Bears Ears National Monument. The book is a thrilling journey in nature, a history of Roosevelt and the Antiquities Act, and a rallying cry in the age of climate change.”
—Robert Redford

"Gessner is an old-school wilderness-besotted warrior-poet. This book stands as a forceful reminder that, in his words, "no matter how often public lands are 'saved,' they are never really safe." Rarely is a battle cry so pleasurable to read, or pleasure so infuriating."
—Robert Moor, New York Times bestselling author of On Trails: An Exploration

“A passionate and timely argument for public lands, a brilliant exploration of Teddy Roosevelt's life and love of nature, and a wickedly wonderful read. Leave It As It Is is as thoughtful, articulate, brave, full of vigor, and dedicated to spinning thought into action as Theodore Roosevelt himself was.”
—Jennifer Ackerman, New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way

“Of all that has been written about Teddy Roosevelt, this engaging book best captures TR's relentless passion for land and wildness as well as his fierceness in protecting them. David Gessner displays the full reach of Roosevelt’s vision for conservation.”
—Charles Wilkinson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado and author of Crossing the Next Meridian

“Leave It As It Is will stretch your imagination—and it may convince you to stretch your legs in some of the remarkable terrain Roosevelt helped preserve. Theodore Roosevelt will always be a problematic character, but as Gessner shows, there are ways in which he was stretching towards the future we inhabit, and towards the past we should not destroy.”
—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

“David Gessner’s scholarship, observations, and assessment of the American West comes not a minute too late. Any thunder we hear now is Theodore Roosevelt rolling over in his grave as the Trump administration proceeds with its feckless policies to liquidate our sacred public lands.”
—Rick Bass, author of For a Little While

“Facing the possible end of American democracy, Gessner revivified Theodore Roosevelt and took him west on a roadtrip to survey his legacy. At the top of his game, Gessner’s strong, intimate voice takes you along and you’ll be glad you went. What more could we need now than to remember what a president could be: a pugilist with a moral backbone, a Harvard-trained naturalist, a lover of literature who writes and speaks in complete sentences, and someone who, if born into wealth, values it far less than beauty and the survival of life on earth.”
—Jordan Fisher Smith, author of Engineering Eden

"This combination of environmental journalism, biography, and travelog introduces fascinating characters who will engage readers of environmental literature as well as Roosevelt enthusiasts."
—Library Journal

“Gessner delivers a thoughtful consideration of Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy as president....[An] excellent look at the origins of environmentalism and an inspiring call to build upon what Roosevelt and other early environmentalists started.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Insightful, observant and wry, writing with his heart on his well-traveled sleeve and a laser focus on the stunning beauty of the parks, Gessner shares an epic road trip through these storied lands.”
—BookPage

"As we face environmental dangers unimagined in Roosevelt’s day, Mr. Gessner asks what TR would do with our surviving wilderness. The impassioned response: Leave it as it is."
—Wall Street Journal

“Gessner’s humor and incisive observations make him a wonderful traveling companion.”
—Julie Hale, BookPage

From the Publisher

2020-05-26
An admiring study of Theodore Roosevelt and his attachment to the natural world.

“All you have to do is go back and read the man’s sentences,” writes environmental-literature writer and professor Gessner. “Not the jingoistic, chest-beating, America-first rants or the bloody descriptions of killing things. But the words in between.” Though often given to sentences that have a faux Hemingway swagger to them, Gessner proves the point by examining Roosevelt’s evolving appreciation of nature and his recognition that other orders of existence besides the human had claims to the world. Some of that appreciation came through the tutelage of early nature writers and explorers such as John Burroughs and John Muir. Much, though, was born of Roosevelt’s dedication to improving his already capacious mind but once feeble body by scaling the rocks of Yosemite, hiking into the Grand Canyon, and other tests. Roosevelt repaid the favor by placing great tracts of public domain land in service as wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, and the like. Gessner mixes solid research with on-the-ground explorations that sometimes get a little goofy, as when, on a trip to Yosemite of his own, he allows his accompanying nephew a “small, safe, legal, uncle-supervised” nibble on a marijuana cookie. His travels often lead, though, to contested places such as the embattled Bears Ears National Monument, for which he mounts an eloquent appeal to return land that the Trump administration has delisted to the public domain. Gessner sometimes wanders down paths of speculation that don’t lead anywhere fruitful (“What would he make of the warming climate and dying species and what we have done with the wilderness he left us?”), and he doesn’t break much new ground. Still, it’s useful to be reminded of a president who appreciates the natural world and puts government to work doing good things.

Fans of Teddy the outdoor enthusiast will appreciate Gessner’s account. (maps and photos)

Kirkus Reviews

Theodore Roosevelt is rightly remembered as a champion of the American wilderness. This audiobook chronicles the author’s journey through the lands that most inspired the president. Fred Sanders offers a smooth, even narration. There is reverence in his tone when delivering descriptions of the natural world and deep emotion when rendering the author’s pleas for a renewed national commitment to conservation. Sanders rightly avoids trying to emulate T.R.’s voice in direct quotations. The biggest problem is with the book itself. The author can’t decide whether the work should be a history of conservation, a personal travelogue, or an environmental call to action. Its various facets don’t meld all that well, and listeners may be left puzzling about the true purpose of the book. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Theodore Roosevelt is rightly remembered as a champion of the American wilderness. This audiobook chronicles the author’s journey through the lands that most inspired the president. Fred Sanders offers a smooth, even narration. There is reverence in his tone when delivering descriptions of the natural world and deep emotion when rendering the author’s pleas for a renewed national commitment to conservation. Sanders rightly avoids trying to emulate T.R.’s voice in direct quotations. The biggest problem is with the book itself. The author can’t decide whether the work should be a history of conservation, a personal travelogue, or an environmental call to action. Its various facets don’t meld all that well, and listeners may be left puzzling about the true purpose of the book. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile