Overview

Social commentator and preeminent Western historian Bernard DeVoto vigorously defended public lands in the West against commercial interests. At his death in 1955, DeVoto had won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes. But he was most famous for his eloquent writing that advocated conservation of America's prairies, rangeland, forests, mountains, canyons, and deserts.DeVoto's West: Essays on History, Conservation, and the Public Good showcases the complexity, depth, and breadth of DeVoto's thinking.

Editor Edward K. Muller introduces these twenty-two essays (many of which originally appeared in Harper's renowned column The Easy Chair) that passionately and coherently advocate federal control for vast tracts of public land. DeVoto addressed many issues, including the plundering of resources by absentee eastern corporations, Westerners' conflicted relationship to exploitation, and the degradation of the national parks. He believed that conservation of natural resources in the West required government control of public lands against livestock associations, timber interests, and their congressional allies who plotted the privatization of the national forests and the extraction of resources in the national parks.

DeVoto's West collects the best of DeVoto's conservation pieces for the first time. It will introduce a new generation to prose that has retained its relevance and remains a remarkably current and timely argument for protecting public lands. Bernard DeVoto was born in Ogden, Utah, in 1897. He spent his adult life in the East, first teaching English at Northwestern University, Chicago, then living in New York, and finally settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the subject of an acclaimed biography, The Uneasy Chair, by Wallace Stegner.

ISBN-13

9780804010733

ISBN-10

0804010730

Weight

0.78 Pounds

Dimensions

5.50 x 0.80 x 8.50 In

List Price

$24.95

Format

Paperback

Language

English

Pages

312 pages

Publisher

Swallow Press

Published On

2005-04-15



View All Offers

Sort by:

Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Used, Good
Seller details
HPB-Red
★★★★★

Dallas, TX, USA

Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used textbooks may not include companion materials s...
$13.38

 Free delivery by: 04 Apr 2026

Used, Good
Seller details
Bonita
★★★★☆

Santa Clarita, CA, USA

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
$42.26

 Free delivery by: 04 Apr 2026


Bookstores.com relies on cookies to improve your experience.