The Promise of Wilderness

"Filled with compelling characters and important parables, The Promise of Wilderness is required reading for environmental historians, but this magnificent book has value well beyond the field. Turner shows that wilderness was neither a transient nor a trivial issue." -- Ryan Edgington * The Journal of American History * "This rich history has many important lessons for those who work for wilderness protection today." -- Doug Scott * Friends of Allegheny Wilderness newsletter * "Turners account is a sophisticated, fresh interpretation, especially for the insights it provides on environmental politics in the 1970s and 1980s. This work pushes beyond the received wisdom in important ways, rethinking the chronology of change, venturing into previously unexplored topical territory, and transforming environmental history into a social-environmental history hybrid." -- Chad Montrie * American Historical Review * "James Turner offers a compelling narrative of U.S. environmental politics that answers and reformulates such questions for scholars, policy insiders, and anyone who has ever marveled at the eloquence of a wilderness area sign. Turners landmark new book shows that [wilderness preservation] was perennially inclusive and cutting-edge." -- Josh Ashenmiller * Pacific Historical Review * "Turner's research is deep, his writing strong, and his argument persuasive. The Promise of Wilderness is sure to become the standard work. It is an outstanding achievement." -- Adam M. Sowards * Montana * "His engaging analysis suggests a complex tale of political ideology, science, and pragmatism that shaped the expansion of wilderness areas throughout the US. Turner's book is a compelling and detailed read, worthy of attention by scholars and students alike. Highly recommended." * Choice * "A fascinating account of the environmental movement in the second half of the century, one that should find a prominent place not only in environmental history but also in political history and the history of the twentieth century . . . an interpretation of the late-twentieth-century wilderness movement that should remain definitive for a long time." -- Keith Woodhouse * US Intellectual History * "The Promise of Wilderness will be read with pleasure by all who enjoy and realize they must act politically to protect the untrammeled great outdoors." -- Rupert Cutler, former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture * Roanoke Times * "James Morton Turner here gives us a highly detailed, exquisitely researched, and exciting account of the nearly 50 years of political, social, and cultural history of the environmental struggle since the act [Wilderness Act of 1964], using wilderness as the flashpoint of that massive endeavoran endeavor even more important today than it was a half century ago." -- Francis Moul * Great Plains Research Vol. 24, No. 1 *

James Morton Turner is assistant professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College.

Foreword Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Part One Wilderness and the Origins of Modern Environmentalism, 19641976 1 Why a Wilderness Act? 2 Speaking for Wilderness 3 The Popular Politics of Wilderness 4 New Environmental Tools for an Old Conservation Issue 101 Part Two The Polarization of American Environmental Politics, 19771994 5 Alaska: The Last Chance to Do It Right the First Time 6 National Forests: The Polarization of Environmental Politics 7 The Public Domain: Environmental Politics and the Rise of the New Right Part Three wilderness and a New Agenda for the Public Lands, 19872009 8 From Wilderness to Public Lands Reform 9 The New Prophets of Wilderness 10 The Paths to Public Lands Reform Epilogue: Rebuilding the Wilderness Movement Notes Bibliography Index