Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America

by Douglas Brinkley

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The acclaimed, award-winning historian—“America’s new past master” (Chicago Tribune)—examines the environmental legacy of FDR and the New Deal.

Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, Brinkley turns his attention to the other indefatigable environmental leader—Teddy’s distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chronicling his essential yet under-sung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and premier protector of America’s public lands. FDR built from scratch dozens of State Park systems and scenic roadways. Pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Mammoth Cave, and the slickrock wilderness of Utah were forever saved by his leadership.

Brinkley traces FDR’s love for the natural world from his youth exploring the Hudson River Valley and bird watching. As America’s president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt—consummate political strategist—established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern endangered species movement. He brilliantly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression. During its nine-year existence, the CCC put nearly three million young men to work on conservation projects—including building trails in the national parks, pollution control, land restoration to combat the Dust Bowl, and planting over two billion trees.

Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR’s unrivaled passion and drive, and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature—exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are brilliant capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Rosalie Edge. Rightful Heritage is essential reading for everyone seeking to preserve our treasured landscapes as an American birthright.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062089250
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Pages:	784
Sales rank:	443,293
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society, trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” He is the recipient of such distinguished environmental leadership prizes as the Frances K. Hutchison Medal (Garden Club of America), Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks (National Parks Conservation Association), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lifetime Heritage Award. His book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was awarded a Grammy for Presidential Suite and is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Education of a Hudson River Conservationist, 1882-1932

Chapter 1 "All That is in Me Goes Back to the Hudson" 3

Chapter 3 "I Just Wish I Could be at Home to Help Mark the Trees" 27

Chapter 4 "He Knew Every Tree, Every Rock, and Every Stream" 47

Chapter 5 "Wise Use" 65

Chapter 5 "Nothing Like Mother Nature" 92

Chapter 6 "A Twice-Born Man" 122

Part 2 New Deal Conservation, 1933-1936

Chapter 7 "They've Made the Good Earth Better" 159

Chapter 8 "He Did Not Wait to Ask Questions, But Simply Said that it Should Be Done" 187

Chapter 9 "Roosevelt Is My Shepherd" 213

Chapter 10 "The Year of the National Park" 238

Chapter 11 "A Duck for Every Puddle" 268

Chapter 12 "Sooner Or Later, You are Likely to Meet the Sign of the Flying Goose" 298

Chapter 13 "We Are Going to Conserve Soil, Conserve Water, and Conserve Life" 330

Part 3 Conservation Expansion, 1937-1939

Chapter 14 "While You're Gittin', Git A-Plenty" 361

Chapter 15 "I Hope the Son-of-a-Bitch Who Logged that is Roasting in Hell" 389

Chapter 16 "Perpetuated For Posterity" 420

Chapter 17 "To Benefit Wildlife" 455

Part 4 World War II and Global Conservation, 1940-1945

Chapter 18 "An Abundance of Wild Things" 485

Chapter 19 "The Army Must Find a Different Nesting Place!" 513

Chapter 30 "Conservation is a Basis of Permanent Peace" 549

Prologue: "Where the Sundial Stands" 577

Appendix A National Park System Areas Affected Under the Reorganization of August 10, 1933 596

Appendix B National Wildlife Refuges Established Under Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945 600

Appendix C National Parks and National Monuments Created by Franklin D. Roosevelt Following the Reorganization of August 10, 1933 610

Appendix D Establishment and Modification of National Forest Boundaries by Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 1933 to April 1945 611

Appendix E The Nine Civilian Conservation Corps Areas 624

Appendix F Civilian Conservation Corps-Basic Facts 625

Acknowledgments 627

Notes 638

Index 718

Editorial Reviews

Enjoyably exhaustive.” — New York Times Book Review

“High-spirited and admirably thorough.” — Washington Post

“[Douglas] Brinkley is one of the nation’s most acclaimed and popular historians [and] Rightful Heritage is a big book about a pivotal time in American history. Brinkley writes admiringly of Roosevelt’s record, but his tone is backed up by a rich trove of research.” — USA Today (four stars)

Douglas Brinkley is America’s most distinguished student of our nation’s environmental history. Rightful Heritage is a landmark achievement. The fullest and most compelling study of FDR’s extraordinary role in perpetuating our natural treasures, it is a must read for anyone interested in the environment — Robert Dallek

A marvelous book; one of Brinkley’s very best. FDR’s conservation achievements helped preserve the nation’s natural bounty and made it accessible to citizens as never before. By telling this grand story so well, Brinkley provokes readers to appreciate how the national government can perform wonders of its own. — Sean Wilentz

Following his definitive look at Teddy Roosevelt’s passion for wilderness conservation, Brinkley now brings us a colorful, exciting narrative of how his cousin FDR carried on the cause. Brinkley gives us a wonderful, timely new perspective on FDR; his wife, Eleanor; and the dedicated environmentalists around them. — Walter Isaacson

With this engaging book, Brinkley recovers one of FDR’s long-overlooked legacies: stewardship of America’s natural resources. This is a vivid history of an important subject. We are lucky that Brinkley has turned his attention to the Roosevelt we do not generally associate with the preservation of our environment. — Jon Meacham

Stunningly researched and compellingly written, Rightful Heritage tells the story of FDR’s love affair with the American wilderness. In our search for compassionate and clear-headed leaders to guide us through the environmental crisis, Brinkley’s vividly detailed account of Roosevelt’s pioneering preservationism serves as a much-needed beacon and bible. — Megan Marshall

Rightful Heritage is an irresistibly powerful and beautiful tale of America’s fraught love affair with its land, told by one of our most gifted historians. Brinkley follows FDR on an astonishing journey that, despite war, depression, and political infighting, somehow preserved what is most precious to us. — Candice Millard

From the Publisher

Following his definitive look at Teddy Roosevelt’s passion for wilderness conservation, Brinkley now brings us a colorful, exciting narrative of how his cousin FDR carried on the cause. Brinkley gives us a wonderful, timely new perspective on FDR; his wife, Eleanor; and the dedicated environmentalists around them.

Walter Isaacson

[Douglas] Brinkley is one of the nation’s most acclaimed and popular historians [and] Rightful Heritage is a big book about a pivotal time in American history. Brinkley writes admiringly of Roosevelt’s record, but his tone is backed up by a rich trove of research.

USA Today (four stars)

…[an] enjoyably exhaustive new biography…Roosevelt thought deeply about the environment, more so than perhaps any other president save his distant relative and namesake, Theodore Roosevelt—as Brinkley well knows, having published a similarly extensive biography of Teddy Roosevelt as an environmentalist, The Wilderness Warrior, in 2009. The Roosevelt cousins make for a satisfying historical diptych. Both came from wealth, and as children were exposed to the best that the American outdoors had to offer. Relatively early in their careers, they came to believe that capitalism had been allowed to run roughshod over much of America's natural beauty, and that it was the government's duty to set things right.

The New York Times Book Review - Clay Risen

★ 02/01/2016
Brinkley (The Quiet World), a professor of history at Rice University, succeeds in showing that F.D.R. should be remembered for his extraordinary, often unsung role as a great conservationist, particularly of public lands. From childhood, Roosevelt was taken by the natural surroundings of his Hudson River home, and as he emerged to greatness he never lost his interest in preserving natural habitats as state and national parks, wildlife refuges, monuments, and forests—especially those lands near American cities. Brinkley, who in Wilderness Warrior wrote about Theodore Roosevelt's outdoorsmanship, makes a solid, if mostly unstated, case that F.D.R.'s conservationist record is as important as his cousin's. Brinkley also addresses the many people who joined F.D.R. in his environmental passions as he covers the lands the president and his administration set aside. He also shows how F.D.R., in his wartime presidency, was moving toward what Brinkley terms "global conservation." The book's detail can be overwhelming and, as with many works of modern American history, it's mostly narrative without a strong point of view, save for Brinkley's evident and justifiable admiration for F.D.R.'s achievements. But Brinkley's book adds significantly to knowledge of F.D.R. as both man and president, and ranks among the best books on this major historical figure. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

With this engaging book, Brinkley recovers one of FDR’s long-overlooked legacies: stewardship of America’s natural resources. This is a vivid history of an important subject. We are lucky that Brinkley has turned his attention to the Roosevelt we do not generally associate with the preservation of our environment.

Jon Meacham

Rightful Heritage is an irresistibly powerful and beautiful tale of America’s fraught love affair with its land, told by one of our most gifted historians. Brinkley follows FDR on an astonishing journey that, despite war, depression, and political infighting, somehow preserved what is most precious to us.

Candice Millard

Enjoyably exhaustive.

New York Times Book Review

Douglas Brinkley is America’s most distinguished student of our nation’s environmental history. Rightful Heritage is a landmark achievement. The fullest and most compelling study of FDR’s extraordinary role in perpetuating our natural treasures, it is a must read for anyone interested in the environment

Robert Dallek

High-spirited and admirably thorough.

Washington Post

A marvelous book; one of Brinkley’s very best. FDR’s conservation achievements helped preserve the nation’s natural bounty and made it accessible to citizens as never before. By telling this grand story so well, Brinkley provokes readers to appreciate how the national government can perform wonders of its own.

Sean Wilentz

Stunningly researched and compellingly written, Rightful Heritage tells the story of FDR’s love affair with the American wilderness. In our search for compassionate and clear-headed leaders to guide us through the environmental crisis, Brinkley’s vividly detailed account of Roosevelt’s pioneering preservationism serves as a much-needed beacon and bible.

Megan Marshall

High-spirited and admirably thorough.

Washington Post

02/15/2016
Renowned presidential historian and television commentator Brinkley (history, Rice Univ.) is author of innumerable books including The Wilderness Warrior, that recount Theodore Roosevelt's role in environmental preservation. Here he focuses on the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) in the Civilian Conservation Corps, which restored and reforested the land and established dozens of park systems and scenic roadways. FDR was motivated by both his congenital love for nature and his acute political instincts to alleviate unemployment during the Great Depression, combining conservation policy with his overall economic strategy. He also benefited from the advice of his wife, Eleanor, politicians Harold Ickes and Gifford Pinchot, and Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas. Brinkley further studies less-examined figures such as the influential Rosalie Edge, a New York socialite and suffragist who lobbied the Audubon Society and managed the Emergency Conservation Committee. As with Theodore, FDR's policies navigated between practical uses of land and pristine protection. VERDICT With an accessible writing style, Brinkley crafts a detailed study that will attract legions of faithful readers. Scholars will savor the author's meticulous annotations in addition to endnotes highlighting a lesser-studied aspect of Franklin's legacy of governmental action, which is also briefly addressed in FDR and the Environment, edited by D. Woolner and H. Henderson. [See Prepub Alert, 9/28/15.]—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC

Library Journal

FDR’s conservation legacy goes far beyond the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps. This monumental examination of his commitment to preserving public lands takes a solid combination of writer and narrator to carry off for listeners. The book provides both. Douglas Brinkley brings a conversational tone to his scholarship that is ably rendered by narrator William Dufris. In particular, Dufris varies his tone and pacing to match the material. He wisely doesn’t try to imitate FDR’s voice in direct quotes; rather, he alters his tone slightly to give aural clues that the material is a direct quotation. He also changes his voice slightly for quotations from common folks, giving them a more natural sound. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2016 - AudioFile

FDR’s conservation legacy goes far beyond the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps. This monumental examination of his commitment to preserving public lands takes a solid combination of writer and narrator to carry off for listeners. The book provides both. Douglas Brinkley brings a conversational tone to his scholarship that is ably rendered by narrator William Dufris. In particular, Dufris varies his tone and pacing to match the material. He wisely doesn’t try to imitate FDR’s voice in direct quotes; rather, he alters his tone slightly to give aural clues that the material is a direct quotation. He also changes his voice slightly for quotations from common folks, giving them a more natural sound. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2016 - AudioFile

2016-01-20
Brinkley (History/Rice Univ.; Cronkite, 2012, etc.) returns with the provocative argument that Theodore Roosevelt was not the only environmentalist in the Roosevelt clan—far from it. "There was never a eureka moment that transformed Franklin D. Roosevelt into a dyed-in-the-wool forest conservationist," writes the author at the opening of this book. If there were, perhaps it would be at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, when the 11-year-old boy studied the thousands of specimens of flora and fauna on display, ardently taking in "the nucleus of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History." Having grown up with an interest in nature, and especially in birds, FDR took time as an officeholder in New York to preserve state lands and create parks; among his campaigns was one to convert the entire Catskills Mountains region into a protected conservation district, if not a state park, that mixed private and public ownership. As governor of New York, he assembled his first "brain trusts," and among the first of these was one devoted to forestry and agronomy. As president, he famously initiated such environmental programs as the Civilian Conservation Corps, using an earlier idea of "forestry as work-relief" to gain bipartisan support for other planks of the New Deal. In his biography of the secretary, T.H. Watkins gave Interior Secretary Harold Ickes most of the credit for the principal environmental accomplishments of the FDR administrations, but Brinkley makes clear that Roosevelt was there at the creation and took a personal interest and lobbied hard for his proposals. Not all of them succeeded, notes the author: of a proposed "national shoreline parks" measure, for instance, only one of a dozen sites, Cape Hatteras, came under national protection. Even so, dozens of grasslands, game refuges, forests, and other conservation units came into the commonweal thanks to FDR's work. Overlong, as are so many of Brinkley's books, but a brightly written, highly useful argument, especially in a time when the public domain is under siege.

Kirkus Reviews