The Nation's Largest Landlord: The Bureau of Land Management in the American West

It is the largest landholder in America, overseeing nearly an eighth of the country: 258 million acres located almost exclusively west of the Mississippi River, with even twice as much below the surface. Its domain embraces wildlife and wilderness, timber, range, and minerals, and for over 60 years, the Bureau of Land Management has been an agency in search of a mission.

This is the first comprehensive, analytical history of the BLM and its struggle to find direction. James Skillen traces th...