Conservation Reconsidered: Nature, Virtue, and American Liberal Democracy

by Charles T. Rubin, Bruce Pencek (Contribution by), Jeffery Salmon (Contribution by), Marlo Lewis Jr. (Contribution by), Larry Arnhart Northern Illinois University (Contribution by)

Overview

The prominent contributors in Conservation Reconsidered establish a fundamentally original view of the conservation movement and the impact of public policy on nature. This collection of essays articulate the belief that the thinkers and actors who helped develop the conservation movement-notably John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and Aldo Leopold-have been seriously misunderstood by scholars who have analyzed them in the context of contemporary environmental debates. Conservationism, the contributors argue, was a diverse movement dealing with difficult questions about the relationship of human beings to nature in a modern liberal democratic state. The essays place conservationism within the framework of 19th century American political thinkers including Darwin, Emerson, Thoreau and Olmsted, and they illuminate perennial questions about citizenship and our place in the natural world. Conservation Reconsidered takes a new look at what is problematic about the legacy of American conservationism and explores worthy alternatives to the dominant environmentalist thinking of today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847697168
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/07/2000
Series:	The Political Economy Forum
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Charles T. Rubin is associate professor of political science at Duquesne University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface Part 2 Conservationalists Chapter 3 Saving the Wilderness for Sacramental Use: John Muir Chapter 4 "With Utter Disregard of Pain and Woe:" Theodore Roosevelt on Conservation and Nature Chapter 5 Gifford Pinchot, Founder: A New Look at Breaking New Ground Chapter 6 Aldo Leopold's Human Ecology Part 7 Precursors Chapter 8 Charles Darwin and John Muir Chapter 9 The Mystery of Nature and Culture: Ralph Waldo Emerson Chapter 10 Henry David Thoreau Chapter 11 Frederick Law Olmstead: Civic Environmentalist Chapter 12 Afterword

Editorial Reviews

The contrast between the founding conservationists of the Progressive Era and their would-be successors among today's environmentalists is made strikingly clear in this indispensable book. Hats off to Charles Rubin for assembling a collection of thinkers equal to the task of reviving the original conservation tradition.

Steven Hayward Ph.D

Conservation Reconsidered may begin to provide for conservatives a way out of the political wilderness.

Claremont Review of Books

How muddled and feckless today's most prominent champions of environmentalism appear, when compared with Muir, Pinchot, Leopold, Theodore Roosevelt, Emerson, Thoreau, and Olmstead, the giants of the preservation and conservation movements of a century ago. In revisiting their legacy, Conservation Reconsidered explores the fundamental tensions, challenges, possibilities, and promise of environmentalism today. The conservationists and their critics framed the environmental debates that have endured.With a clarity that has not been improved on since, they defined how we can view our place in nature, and the different objectives we pursue in protecting it. The ten essays of Conservation Reconsidered are informed, serious, thoughtful, and a real pleasure to read. Every serious student of environmental politics in America should begin here, where it all began. r is the .

Peter Huber

...a provocative critique of the assumptions about natural resource philosophy and history is 20th century America.

The Quarterly Review Of Biology

Eight contributors, professors of political science and history, as well as organization men, write about Emerson, Thoreau, John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold, and Frederick Law Olmstead. The overall goal of this volume is to prove that many American ur-environmentalists were not simply conservationists<-->those intent on setting nature aside for wise and efficient use<-->nor simply preservationists<-->those anti-consumerists intent on setting nature aside for moral reasons<-->but both. Two essays show that preservationists Muir and Leopold were not just in favor of locking away as much wilderness as possible, but using it. Roosevelt, argues another essay, was no mere rational planner, but intensely interested in the moral role of wilderness for democracy. Still another essay holds that Pinchot less believed in science than used it to support a political reform program. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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