Wildfire and Americans

by Kennedy, Roger G.

• ISBN13: 9780803216044
• ISBN10: 0803216041
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Bison Books

Summary

Wildfire and Americansis a passionate, deeply informed appeal for us to acknowledge that wildfire is not a fire problem but a people problem. There are no natural disasters, only people in disastrous circumstances. Many Americans are in the wrong places, channeled there by wrong policies. Roger G. Kennedy has pieced together the untold history of the Cold Warera policies that deliberately emptied America's cities and subsidized the suburban and exurban encroachment into a dangerous landscape that is becoming increasingly precarious with global warming. Kennedy's understanding of the United States' history of transgressing nature's limits, his grasp of how politicians and industries stand to gain by leaving the problem unsolved, his familiarity with the science of fire, and, finally, his faith-grounded conviction regarding our moral responsibility toward both our environment and our fellow human beings makeWildfire and Americansmore than a history of policies gone terribly awryit is also a plan of action to reverse more than fifty years of wrong-headed and misguided policy.

Author Biography

Roger G. Kennedy is director emeritus of the National Museum of American History and former director of the National Park Service. He has written ten books and coedited Living on the Edge: Economic, Institutional and Management Perspectives on Wildfire Hazard in the Urban Interface.