Making America's Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands
Throughout American history, "public lands" have been the subject of controversy, from homesteaders settling the American west to ranchers who use the open range to promote free enterprise, to wilderness activists who see these lands as wild places. This book shows how these controversies intersect with critical issues of American history.
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Before the American Revolution, the British prevented colonists' westward expansion near the Atlantic Coast via the Proclamation Line of 1763. After the Revolution, the young nation sought ways to offer new settlers the public land inherited from the new states. According to Sowards, this involved a host of scholars and a plethora of special interests and government agencies, which he highlights, but dispersal failed to be easy over time. The issue of land use is old but is as relevant as today's news. Finding ways of conserving vast forests, mountains, wilderness, deserts, and waterways has bedeviled the nation in light of its economic and capitalistic impulses. In short, a vast number of government agencies and private organizations have attempted conservation but sometimes failed at the task. In competition with public interest, special interests often win but are sometimes thwarted in favor of the public. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.
Because of both its wide breadth and short length, Making America's Public lands will be useful to many readers. It will easily avail itself to anyone interested in public lands and both undergraduate and graduate classes to introduce the complicated history of the U.S. environment, readily bringing them to the table of the topic.
