NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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.
