For a few decades now, Roderick Nash's WILDERNESS AND THE AMERICAN MIND in its various editions has been perhaps the best all around introduction to the history of American attitudes towards nature and about what makes these attitudes unique in world culture. All editions have covered the greater story, beginning with the early attitudes towards wilderness in colonial times, in which nature was viewed primarily in terms of the use to which it could be put and a sense of human responsibility to transform it for human use. Nash then shows how American ideas towards nature gradually altered through the thought of individuals inspired by Romanticism, in particular Emerson and Thoreau. He then describes how Americans moved from a view of nature as possessing value only to the degree to which it can be put to use, to a view of wilderness having intrinsic value entirely on its own. All the major events in American environmental history are covered, from the popularization of wilderness through painters such as Cole, Bierstadt, and Moran, to the work and influence of John Muir, through the creation of the national park and forest system, to the work of 20th century figures such as Aldo Leopold. The book makes all-in-all a fascinating read, and anyone wanting to learn about

In particular, Nash shows how the view of undeveloped wilderness as something possessing intrinsic value worth preserving in an undeveloped state is a uniquely American idea, and one of the great intellectual contributions to world thought. Today, a large number of countries have followed America's lead in establishing national parks and wildlife preserves. All over the world, the notion of wilderness and nature possessing value apart from what human activity imparts to it is commonplace.

For anyone wanting to go beyond Nash's book to read more deeply on the various topics covered will find Nash's Bibliographic Essay to be almost as valuable as the book itself. Nash is an obvious bibliophile, and he provides a rich and varied introduction to every aspect of his subject. After reading this book for the first time, I read a large number of books suggested by Nash in his essay. I later offered some continuing education classes at the University of Chicago on environmental ethics, a subject about which I learned primarily by working from Nash's bibliography. The ongoing value of this book has been enhanced by the recent fourth edition, which has not only added a new preface but has extensively updated the bibliography. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for anyone even remotely interested in American or environmental history.

Best of all, this book, while impeccable in its academic credentials, is never less than utterly fun and delightfully readable. Definitely not for scholars and students alone.

A few years ago, this book was suggested to me as a great place to begin a project I was working on in school. It became the keystone of information I was looking for. So much good and insightful information about so many important minds and events in wilderness thought. Nash has written a favorite resource for historical perspective on environmental issues.

I stumbled across this book in the course of some research on the so-called "Greening of American Religion," ie the reinterpretation of the Bible and other religious works to more appreciate, rather than vilify, the non-human environment. As Nash thoroughly documents in the first chapters of this book, Christianity (or at least American elements of it) certainly bears a heavy cross when it comes to environmental destruction in America. After reading Nash, someone is going to have to do some real creative reinterpretation to convince me that the Bible does not say what generations of Americans have understood it to say: the earth was made for man, and man has every right to control and manage it to his ends, part of which means conquering and "civilizing" wilderness and everything within it. These early chapters are important, because it constructs the anti-wilderness mindset that so thoroughly dominated early American (world?) history (and for that matter continues to influence the thought of millions of Americans). Subsequent chapters chronicle how some Americans-initially only lone voices like Thoreau and Muir-rejected this view and developed the idea of wilderness we generally accept today within the preservationist movement. In the process Nash explores competing "environmentalist" theories such as the "wise use" (conservationist) leanings of Pinchot and TR Roosevelt and the surprising beginnings of some of our contemporary "environmentalist" legislation (e.g. forest reserve system). Later chapters focus on the Hetch-Hetchy controversy and Leopold. As such this book serves as a very readable and well-constructed general history of American environmentalism, a book any "environmentalist" (regardless of how you define that term) should read. As another reviewer notes, some of the scholarship needs to be updated (e.g. the apocryphal "campfire chat" of the "founders" of Yellowstone NP that likely never took place, as discussed in Schullery's recent history of Yellowstone). But overall an excellent resource, one you'll want on your bookshelf if for no other reason than the copious quotes sprinkled throughout the text used to support Nash's arguments. My favorite (from Lord Byron's Manfred: A Dramatic Poem (London 1817)):

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is a society where none intrudes
I love not the man less, but nature more.

What a joy to see that this book is back in print! When our nature book discussion group chose it as a monthly selection several years ago, we had to scramble to find copies. I was one of the lucky ones who got one, read it all, and underlined a whole slew of passages for later reference.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords." (George Perkins Marsh, 1864)

"Environment is to the would-be cultured man what air is to the animal -- it is the breath of life." (Benton MacKaye, 1928)

"When you have reached the edge of an abyss ... the only progressive move you can make is to step backward." (David R. Brower, 1977)

Then the compiler adds his answer to the question "Why do we love wilderness?" by giving seven reasons: scientific value, spiritual values, aesthetic value, heritage value, psychological value, cultural value, and intrinsic value. His explanations make this selection the one I most often pass on to other people. (Roderick Frazier Nash, 1988)

My advice is to buy this book as a present for your favorite environmentalist friend. Sure, you could go instead with _The Quotable Nature Lover_, a Nature Conservancy book edited by John A. Murray. But _American Environmentalism_ puts those kinds of quotes back into context; the editor not only provides full text but also explains what was going on at the time of its writing. Selections are arranged chronologically and are short enough to hold anyone's interest. And we're not talking just Thoreau, Muir, Carson and Leopold here, as the excerpts above show. There are names you might not recognize at first glance. Amateur environmentalists can use this compilation as a starting point for further reading, as full citations are always provided. Though it's not entirely current (1989) this book is still useful.

Give it to a graduating senior, or to anyone else who has the potential to save the planet. They'll be inspired.

This isn't the type of book someone could pick up and get a good view of the American Environmental movement. It does well in teaching about past movements but ignores modern movements like Environmental Justice and the controversy surrounding Market Based Incentives. It is a good book for teaching if coupled with extra material as it is very readable and interesting.

Strongly recommended for experts or enthusiasts on the subject. An in-depth approach to some of the most important figures in early American history. Found the first volume more useful than the second only because information on people in the first volume is more rare. The passage on Tecumseh was a treat for the history buff and the passage on Lee provided a new insight on his personal life. A must read for history buffs!

This is a very informative and crisply written history of environmental thought and politics in the U.S., from John Muir to Peter Singer. It offers a great deal of thoughtful commentary, for example on the gradual shift in focus from tangible benefits for humans (underlying the conservation and national parks movement circa 1900) to inherent rights of nature itself (signalled e.g. by the Endangered Species Act). It's not hard to see that Nash is sympathetic to many of these causes, and clearly this book isn't for folks who prefer to view things in strictly economic terms, but still it is quite well-balanced in tone, and the scholarship is really impressive. I highly recommend it to anyone interested at all in the environmental movement, or American intellectual history generally, or simply looking for some thought-provoking reading. 220 pp., plus 50 pp. of notes.

This book introduces the basic values of preserving "wild" places. Good for any person who loves the outdoors, especially young people and students who may need a lesson in values.