Table Of ContentMore praise for Wilderness and the American Mind
"One of those rare works that combines exemplary scholarship and
readability."—Washington Post Book World
"This book is a mandatory prelude to any modern treatment of con-
servation problems. It does not purport to tell us where we go from
here. But it reports in telling fashion how we got where we are and the
nature of the forces that have driven us pell-mell toward a leveling of
the wilderness."—William O. Douglas, Natural History
"Should be on every conservationist's bookshelf."—Living Wilderness
"A masterly study of the wilderness mystique and the ambivalent
American attitude toward the wilderness."—Pacific Historian
"A classic, unique in its field. . . . Wilderness and the American Mind pro-
vides a valuable service in reminding us that attitudes toward wilder-
ness, like the wild lands themselves, are constantly changing."
—William E. Shands, American Land Forum Magazine
"The essential theme of the book is that a transformation has oc-
curred in American thinking about wild places—from fear and ha-
tred to appreciation and even reverence—but that such a change has
not assured real protection of the remaining areas. . . . The book is
both scholarly and readable. Much of the biographical information is
interesting and the reader is likely to be surprised by the subtleties of
American thinking about wilderness."—American Historical Review
"Among recent books on the long history of man's attitudes toward
his primeval setting, with primary focus on the attitudes of Americans,
the eminent volume is Nash's."—American Quarterly
'"Wilderness, in the final analysis, is a state of mind,' and the author
critically describes man's attitudes toward a state of nature he feared,
romanticized, felt he had to conquer and change, wished to preserve,
used as a refuge from an unsatisfactory culture, and in most cases
despoiled. The concepts are traced from the ancient symbol of the
Garden of Eden to our present conservation controversies."
—Books of the Southwest
"Essential. . . . Nash provides a fair-minded synopsis of the thought of
just about every American who has had something of substance to say
on the subject."—Fred W. Kohlmeyer, Journal of Forest History
"This book continues to provide an excellent overview of the sub-
ject matter and in paperback makes a valuable textbook for the
classroom."—Science, Technology & Society
WILDERNESS AND THE AMERICAN MIND
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Wilderness and the American Mind
RODERICK FRAZIER NASH
Fifth edition
FOREWORD BY CHAR MILLER
Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS
New Haven and London
First edition published in 1967. Fifth edition 2014.
Preface and Epilogue copyright © 2014 by Yale University.
Foreword copyright © 2014 by Char Miller.
Previous editions copyright © 1967, 1973, 1982, and 2001 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational,
business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected]
(U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office).
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013949305
ISBN 978-0-300-19038-0 (pbk.)
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Contents
Foreword by Char Miller vii
Preface to the Fifth Edition: Fifty Years in the Wilderness xvii
Prologue: The Condition of Wilderness i
1. Old World Roots of Opinion 8
2. A Wilderness Condition 23
3. The Romantic Wilderness 44
4. TheAmericanWilderness 67
5. Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher 84
6. Preserve the Wilderness! 96
7. Wilderness Preserved 108
S.John Muir: Publicizer 122
9. The Wilderness Cult 141
10. Hetch Hetchy 161
11. Aldo Leopold: Prophet 182
i 2. Decisions for Permanence 200
i 3. Toward a Philosophy of Wilderness 238
14. Alaska 272
15. The Irony of Victory 316
16. The International Perspective 342
Epilogue to the Fifth Edition: Island Civilization 379
Bibliography 387
Index 393
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Foreword
CHAR MILLER
WILDERNESS is contested ground. As a physical reality, wild land
has been mined, dammed, grazed, and harvested, as well as hiked,
skied, and boated. These economic and recreational uses are vocif-
erously defended and decried. As a cultural domain, wilderness is
no less controversial. Those who have sought to preserve the natu-
ralness of coastal, mountainous, or riparian landscapes, or to keep
prairies, wetlands, forests, or meadows untrammeled, have fought
with those who would exploit the resources that they contain.
Because these battles draw in grassroots organizations, state and
federal agencies, and national interest groups, and because these
struggles play out over decades, you need a scorecard to keep track
of the shifting arguments and alliances. There is no better place to
begin to understand the intellectual roots, political sources, and
social significance of these epic brawls over the meaning of wilder-
ness than the thick book in your hands.
That Wilderness and the American Mind is now in its fifth edition,
and has been in print since it first appeared in 1967, signifies the
enduring character of the struggle to come to terms with the natu-
ral systems that sustain the United States. It tells you too that its
author, Roderick Frazier Nash, has vividly depicted the tensions
animating our conflicted relationship with wilderness — and in do-
ing so has given his many readers an analytical understanding of
wilderness and a framework by which to engage with it. "Not only
did Nash capture the wilderness pulse of America," observes histo-
rian Michael Lewis, but "he helped define that pulse, so that subse-
quent generations of environmental scholars and activists discussed
American wilderness in Nash's terms, with his examples, and with
his heroes." That's the definition of a seminal, heuristic text.1
Some of the lessons Nash's book teaches are derived in different
ways from his many decades running whitewater rapids that churn
the turbulent rivers of the American West, work that began while
he was a Harvard undergraduate. "For me, keeping an oar in the
i. Michael Lewis, American Wilderness: A Mew History (New York, 2007), p. 7.
