Rightful Heritage
The Renewal of America
-
-
4.8 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
The acclaimed, award-winning historian—“America’s new past master” (Chicago Tribune)—examines the environmental legacy of FDR and the New Deal.
Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, Brinkley turns his attention to the other indefatigable environmental leader—Teddy’s distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chronicling his essential yet under-sung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and premier protector of America’s public lands. FDR built from scratch dozens of State Park systems and scenic roadways. Pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Mammoth Cave, and the slickrock wilderness of Utah were forever saved by his leadership.
Brinkley traces FDR’s love for the natural world from his youth exploring the Hudson River Valley and bird watching. As America’s president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt—consummate political strategist—established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern endangered species movement. He brilliantly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression. During its nine-year existence, the CCC put nearly three million young men to work on conservation projects—including building trails in the national parks, pollution control, land restoration to combat the Dust Bowl, and planting over two billion trees.
Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR’s unrivaled passion and drive, and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature—exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are brilliant capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Rosalie Edge. Rightful Heritage is essential reading for everyone seeking to preserve our treasured landscapes as an American birthright.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brinkley (The Quiet World), a professor of history at Rice University, succeeds in showing that F.D.R. should be remembered for his extraordinary, often unsung role as a great conservationist, particularly of public lands. From childhood, Roosevelt was taken by the natural surroundings of his Hudson River home, and as he emerged to greatness he never lost his interest in preserving natural habitats as state and national parks, wildlife refuges, monuments, and forests especially those lands near American cities. Brinkley, who in Wilderness Warrior wrote about Theodore Roosevelt's outdoorsmanship, makes a solid, if mostly unstated, case that F.D.R.'s conservationist record is as important as his cousin's. Brinkley also addresses the many people who joined F.D.R. in his environmental passions as he covers the lands the president and his administration set aside. He also shows how F.D.R., in his wartime presidency, was moving toward what Brinkley terms "global conservation." The book's detail can be overwhelming and, as with many works of modern American history, it's mostly narrative without a strong point of view, save for Brinkley's evident and justifiable admiration for F.D.R.'s achievements. But Brinkley's book adds significantly to knowledge of F.D.R. as both man and president, and ranks among the best books on this major historical figure.
Customer Reviews
Rightful Heritage by Brinkley
Fascinating glimpse into a society of conservationists that still exists today. FDR made it to the presidency and made contributions to this country that cannot be underestimated. It is hard to imagine a group of national leaders having a meeting today and discussing trees and birds for most of the meeting. Yet FDR was unashamedly an unending supporter of our natural heritage. It appears to me as though the kind of person that he was and the company he kept are no longer in politics but are involved in charities and groups such as homeowner associations. Yet everyday we as a country enjoy all of the things he built. This country could use another FDR as president. He certainly was one of the most popular leaders we have ever had and this book is a much-needed reminder that it took a certain kind of person to make this country what it is today.