Promotional Information

Examines how the idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964

Table of Contents

Foreword

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One

Wilderness and the Origins of

Modern Environmentalism, 1964–1976

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, 1977–1994

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, 1987–2009

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

About the Author

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

Reviews

"James Turner's insightful book demonstrates the continued vitality and centrality of wilderness within American environmentalism." Mark Harvey, author of Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act "A superb study of the implementation of the Wilderness Act, and a springboard for a new period in wilderness thought and advocacy." Paul Sutter, author of Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement "The most deeply researched, analytically rigorous, and elegantly written study of American wilderness politics since the 1960s yet produced." from the Foreword by William Cronon