The Quiet World; Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960

New York, N.Y.: Harper (An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers), 2011. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. x, [2], 576, [2] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations (most in color). Maps. DJ is price clipped. Some DJ wear and soiling. Includes Prologue: John Muir and the Gospel of Glaciers. Also includes chapters on Odyssey of the Snowy Owl; Theodore Roosevelt's Conservation Doctrine; The Pinchot-Ballinger Feud; Bull Moose Crusade; Charles Sheldon's Fierce Fight; Our Vanishing Wildlife; The Lake Clark Pact; Resurrection Bay of Rockwell Kent; The New Wilderness Generation; Warren G. Harding: Backlash; Bob Marshall and the Gates of the Arctic; Those Amazing Muries; Will the Wolf Survive?; William O. Douglas and New Deal Conservation; Ansel Adams, Wonder Lake, and The Lady Bush Pilots; Pribilof Seals, Walt Disney, and the Arctic Wolves of Louis Crisler; The Arctic Range and Aldo Leopold; The Sheenjek Expedition of 1956; Dharma Wilderness; Of Hoboes, Barefooters, and The Open Road; Sea Otter Jones and Musk-Ox Matthiessen; Rachel Carson's Alarm; Selling the Arctic Refuge; and Arctic Forever. Also contains Acknowledgments, Notes, & Index. This book documents the heroic fight waged by the U.S. federal government from 1879 to 1960 to save wild Alaska from the extraction industries. The author traces the wilderness movement in Alaska, from John Muir to Theodore Roosevelt to Aldo Leopold to Dwight D. Eisenhower, with narrative verve. Basing his research on extensive new archival material, Brinkley shows how a colorful band of determined environmentalists created the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge just before John F. Kennedy became president. Douglas Brinkley (born December 14, 1960) is an American author, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and professor of history at Rice University. Brinkley is the history commentator for CNN, and a contributing editor to the magazine Vanity Fair. He is a public spokesperson on conservation issues. He joined the faculty of Rice University as a professor of history in 2007. On November 18, 2011, during his testimony before a Congressional hearing on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Brinkley had a heated exchange with Rep. Don Young. Young, who had not been present during Brinkley's testimony, nonetheless characterized it as "garbage" and addressed Brinkley as "Dr. Rice." In response, Brinkley stated, "It's Dr. Brinkley. Rice is a university. I know you went to Yuba College and couldn't graduate." Brinkley also noted that Young's comments were made even though Young had not been present during his testimony. Brinkley continued to argue with Young throughout the hearing until the committee chairman threatened to have Brinkley removed.
Derived from a Kirkus review: Vanity Fair contributing editor Brinkley delivers a vigorous, thorough survey of Alaska's natural splendors, from John Muir's first treks into Glacier Bay in 1879 to President Eisenhower's establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Range in 1960. "Seward's Folly" was acquired from the Russians under President Andrew Johnson in 1867 and would soon prove itself much more than a frozen wasteland, as the lucrative markets in coal, minerals, seal and mammal fur, gold and oil would unfurl. However, another trend by eager admirers of the land's natural beauty and abundant wildlife evolved into a powerful preservation movement, thanks to Muir's early writings and the founding of the Sierra Club; the 1899 scientific expedition to Alaska sponsored by Union Pacific Railroad owner E.H. Harriman; and the advocacy for the land and its natives by amateur naturalist Theodore Roosevelt, among numerous others. As president, Roosevelt was the first to articulate a doctrine of conservation, as sketched later by the great environmentalist and writer Aldo Leopold, involving the "wise use" of the land and resources, the necessity of "public responsibility" for their care and the need for science to maintain them. Roosevelt's Bull Moose agenda inspired other progressives like Charles Sheldon, who fought to save the Denali wilderness as part of his work for the U.S. Biological Survey, and William Temple Hornaday, head of the Bronx Zoo and author of Our Vanishing Wild Life (1913). Brinkley systematically works through the milestones of Alaskan preservation, including the moving paintings by Rockwell Kent and photographs by Ansel Adams, Adolph Murie's fight for the wolves, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas' position as the "leading light of the wilderness movement" during the New Deal, and writings by the Beats such as Gary Snyder. Brinkley skillfully conveys how the natural beauty of Alaska worked its magic.