United States
£ GBP
The founding chief of the U.S. Forest Service and twice governor of Pennsylvania, Gifford Pinchot was central to the early twentieth-century conservation movement in the United States and the political history and evolution of the Keystone State. This collection of Pinchot's essays, articles, and letters reveals a gifted public figure whose work and thoughts on the environment, politics, society, and science remain startlingly relevant today.
A learned man and admirably accessible writer, Pinchot showed keen insight on issues as wide-ranging as the rights of women and minorities, war, education, Prohibition, agricultural policy, land use, and the craft of politics. He developed galvanizing arguments against the unregulated exploitation of natural resources, made a clear case for thinking globally but acting locally, railed at the pernicious impact of corporate power on democratic life, and firmly believed that governments were obligated to enhance public health, increase economic opportunity, and sustain the land. Pinchot's policy accomplishments – including the first clean-water legislation in Pennsylvania and the nation – speak to his effectiveness as a communicator and a politician. His observations on environmental issues were exceptionally prescient, as they anticipated the dilemmas currently confronting those who shape environmental public policy.
Introduced and annotated by environmental historian Char Miller, this is the only comprehensive collection of Pinchot's writings. Those interested in the history of conservation, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, American politics, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will find Gifford Pinchot: Selected Writings invaluable.
Introduction
- Forests, Forestry and Foresters
- Government Forestry Abroad, 1891
- The Forests of Ne-Ha-Sa-Ne Park in Northern New York, 1893
- A Plan to Save the Forests, 1895
- In the Philippine Forests, 1903
- Dear Forester, 1905
- The Proposed Eastern Forest Reserves, 1906
- Speech to the Denver Lands Convention, 1907
- The ABC of Conservation, 1909
- Mr. Pinchot on Forest Fires, 1910
- Roosevelt’s Part in Forestry, 1919
- National or State Control of Forest Devastation, 1920
- Letter to Foresters, 1930
- Old Evils in New Clothes, 1937
- War & Peace
- North American Conservation Conference, 1909
- England in War, 1915
- Preparedness and Common Sense, 1916
- Agriculture Policy in Wartime, 1917
- A Forest Devastation Warning, 1925
- Conservation as a Foundation for Permanent Peace, 1940
- Governing the Keystone State
- The Reclamation of Pennsylvania’s Desert, 1920
- The Influence of Women in Politics, 1922
- Inaugural Address, 1923
- The Blazed Trail of Forest Depletion, 1923
- Why I Believe in Enforcing Prohibition, 1923
- Old Age Assistance in Pennsylvania, 1924
- Politicians or the People? 1926
- Inaugural Address, 1931
- The Case for Federal Relief, 1932
- Lifting Farmers Out of the Mud, 1932
- Liquor Control in the United States: The State Store Plan, 1934
- Pennsylvania State Forests, 1942
- Water, Energy, and Power
- What are we going to do about Coal in Alaska? 1911
- Testimony on the Hetch Hetchy Dam, 1913
- Muscle Shoals, 1921
- Giant Power, 1924
- Prevention First, 1927
- The Power Monopoly: Its Makeup and Menace, 1928
- The Long Struggle for Effective Water Power Legislation, 1945
- Natural Moments
- One Afternoon at Pelican Bay, 1897
- Swordfishing, 1912
- South Seas Reflections, 1930
- Two’s Company, 1936
- Time Like an Ever Rolling Stream, 1936
Acknowledgements
Index
Char Miller is W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College. He has published dozens of books, including Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot; Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism; and, with V. Alaric Sample and R. Patrick Bixler, Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene.
"A valuable contribution that will significantly enhance our knowledge and awareness of one of the nation's leading intellectuals in land use. Char Miller has thoughtfully collected and organized the writings that capture the ideas and development of arguably the most important mind in the American conservation tradition."
– Brian C. Black, author of Gettysburg Contested and Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History
"Despite Gifford Pinchot's high-profile reputation as a founder of American conservation, most scholars have likely read few of his own writings. With these well-chosen documents from Pinchot's own hand, Char Miller provides a window onto Pinchot's thinking about rivers, soils, minerals, agriculture, forestry, and public stewardship of natural resources during a time of sweeping change."
– Mark Harvey, author of Wilderness Forever
"Eminently readable."
– Pennsylvania Heritage
"One might say that many of [Pinchot's] opinions (spoken or written in the earlier parts of the 1900s) are contemporary and suited for analysis today. Highly recommended for libraries, schools, and personal libraries."
– Al Holliday, Pennsylvania Magazine
