Book Review: The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years by Robert M. Thorson
Most biographers have ignored Henry David Thoreau’s relationship to the river but Robert Thorson here aims to correct this narrow focus by arguing that the river – the active ever-changing water bustiling with activity both human and natural – is as much a part of Thoreau’s canon and its landscape as the still water of Walden Pond. In this book Thorson envisions Thoreau’s environment as a hybrid of land and water, and the man as a boatman as much as a woodsman.
Book Review: The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection by Dorceta E. Taylor
Dorceta E. Taylor, The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection (Duke University Press, 2016) pp. 486. $29.95. Dorceta E. Taylor introduces The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection as the second book in a series of three, although they were not published in that order. Taylor considers the first to be The Environment, and the People in American Cities: 1600s- 1900s (2009) while the third is Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility (2014). Although The American Conservation Movement is ostensibly the middle publication, Taylor does not rely on earlier work and instead uses the formation of the series to her advantage by focusing on different aspects of environmental history with each book structured to read as a standalone piece. This book comprises four interlinking sections on wildlife conservation, wilderness and park preservation, hunting and fishing ethics, and rural […]