Conservation Reconsidered Nature, Virtue, and American Liberal Democracy

by Rubin, Charles T.; Pencek, Bruce; Salmon, Jeffery; Lewis, Marlo, Jr.; Arnhart, Larry; Lennox, James G.; Taylor, Bob Pepperman; Landy, Marc

• ISBN13: 9780847697175
• ISBN10: 0847697177
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-07
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

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 environm

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Charles T. Rubin
Part One: Conservationists
Saving Wilderness for Sacramental Use: John Muir	3	(30)
Bruce Pencek
``With Utter Disregard of Pain and Woe'': Theodore Roosevelt on Conservation and Nature	33	(34)
Jeffrey Salmon
Gifford Pinchot, Founder: A New Look at Breaking New Ground	67	(36)
Marlo Lewis Jr.
Aldo Leopold's Human Ecology	103	(32)
Larry Arnhart
Part Two: Precursors
Was John Muir a Darwinian?	135	(24)
James G. Lennox
The Mystery of Nature and Culture: Ralph Waldo Emerson	159	(24)
Charles T. Rubin
Henry David Thoreau's Use of Nature	183	(24)
Bob Pepperman Taylor
Frederick Law Olmsted: Civic Environmentalist	207	(22)
Marc Landy
Afterword	229	(12)
Bob Pepperman Taylor
Index	241	(12)
About the Contributors	253