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Acknowledgments
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book began as a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Kansas, where I was privileged to have Donald Worster as my advisor. Don’s wisdom and patience were, in equal measure, critical to the successful completion of this book and to my maturation as a historian. His influence is everywhere in these pages. Beyond that, I am indebted to him for his passion and strong sense of moral purpose. For as long as I write environmental history, his will be the voice of my scholarly conscience. Finally , I thank Don for giving so much to his graduate students and for building and presiding over a vibrant community of inquiry in Lawrence and its hinterland. I am also grateful to the other members of my dissertation committee: John Clark, Peter Mancall, Bill Tuttle, and Rick Prum. Rick was a goodnatured , last-minute recruit who averted a crisis and served admirably under the circumstances. Bill gave the dissertation a great read and provided valuable suggestions for connecting my study to the broader contours of modern U.S. history. Beyond his assistance with my dissertation, Peter was a source of great encouragement throughout my graduate career . I profited tremendously from John’s wide-ranging intellect and his renowned candor. Sadly, John passed away before I could send him a copy of this book. Finally, I owe a word of thanks to the History Department faculty at the University of Kansas for their support and general excellence . I was fortunate to have an exemplary group of peers in graduate school. I thank Mike French and Matt Logan for their friendship and for keeping me in my place (which was, more often than not, the Free State Brewery). They were both, a few plumbing-related incidents aside, ideal housemates and intellectual sparring partners. Brian Black, James Pritchard, and Adam Rome were newcomers to Lawrence, as was I, in the fall of 1991, and ever since I have been scrambling to match the high scholarly standards they have set for our cohort. Each has become a great friend. I am xiii also grateful to, among others, Jay Antle, Kevin Armitage, Karl Brooks, Kip Curtis, Sterling Evans, Rusty Monhollon, Amy Schwartz, and Frank Zelko for their friendship and camaraderie. After completing my Ph.D., I had the luxury of a three-year postdoctoral fellowship sponsored by the Committee on the History of Technology and the Environment at the University of Virginia, during which time I completed major revisions on this manuscript. I thank the members of the History Department and the Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication who made my stay a productive one. I am particularly indebted to Ed Russell, Brian Balogh, Bernie Carlson, and Jack Brown. I also had the good fortune of getting to know Matt Dalbey and Dan Philippon while I lived in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I want to thank my new colleagues in the History Department at the University of Georgia, where I put the finishing touches on this book. I feel lucky (yet again) to have landed in a terrific place to live and work. There are so many others who have shaped this book. I recall vividly, and embarrassingly, a visit I made to the Wilderness Society offices in Washington, D.C., at an early stage of this project. There a gentleman, who I assumed was a low-level staffer, ably assisted me with what historical materials they had. His name was T. H. Watkins. Only later did I realize that Tom Watkins was an accomplished historian, environmental writer, and biographer—and a great champion of American wilderness. Tom generously read and commented on early drafts of a couple of chapters . His untimely death was a great loss to the entire environmental community. Larry Anderson shared with me his immense knowledge of Benton MacKaye’s life and thought and provided valuable comments on my MacKaye chapter. Curt Meine went above and beyond the call of duty, on a cold January morning no less, to drive into Madison, have breakfast with me, and give me a tour of the Aldo Leopold Papers. Curt has subsequently been an invaluable guide to all things Leopold. Peggy Shaffer commented on an early version of my chapter on Robert Sterling Yard, and she kindly shared her important work on the “See America First” movement—and some images from the era as well. More recently, Phil Terrie read over my Bob Marshall chapter, shared with me his thoughts on...