Nature's Altars: Mountains, Gender, and American Environmentalism (review)

In this insightful and gracefully written study of white American men's and women's fascination with western mountain ranges, Schrepfer uses letters, memoirs, and diaries to establish differences between male and female tropes regarding the outdoors. She especially features the Sierra Club and California peaks, with an occasional reference to Colorado and the Pacific Northwest. Beginning in the 1860s and ending in 1964, Schrepfer shows how gendered views of western wilderness, which she calls the masculine and feminine sublimes, eventually shaped environmental policy.

Although Schrepfer argues that during the nineteenth century, "botanical studies shaped feminine visions of wild nature, whereas geology, in particular, underscored masculine perceptions," this discovery is not new (6). Historians of the westward trail, as well as environmental historians, have long observed this difference. Far more interesting is Schrepfer's assertion that men surged into western landscapes less as a reaction to the growing feminization of family and work than from their own confidence in carrying white—and increasingly feminized—civilization into mountainous wilds. One example of this motivation was men's descriptions of mountains in terms of the female body. Others were men's penchants to name lakes and mountains after women and their willingness to include women in even the most dangerous expeditions.

Schrepfer's study is perhaps most valuable regarding the twentieth century. She demonstrates that male and female ethics changed due to such factors as world war and industrialization. Social norms urged men to be manly and aggressive, whereas women were to dedicate themselves to "self-sacrifice, motherhood, and service" (182). Accordingly, men seized leadership positions in the environmental movement, whereas women worked largely in such grassroots organizations as garden and women's clubs.

Schrepfer focuses primarily on white, middle-class, mostly eastern men and women. She offers no discussion of why or how they came to dominate the environmental movement. Schrepfer mentions that environmentalism was a form of colonialism in that it displaced sheepherders, but has far less to say about the dislocation of native peoples. An application of postcolonial theory in this context would add nuance and depth to her understanding of gender.

From the viewpoint of a western historian, Schrepfer also needs to develop a sense of regionalism. For one thing, the tension between easterners who reshaped western lands and land policy needs exploration in relation to gender. Another ignored area is the deviation between eastern and western conceptions of masculine and feminine behavior. And what of the South? What role did southern men and women and southern constructions of gender play in the growing environmental movement? Certainly, a rich literature exists on regionalism and on gender in the West, East, and South.

Despite these suggestions, Schrepfer's book offers a wealth of information and analysis regarding historical and contemporary environmentalism. Although not conceived as an interdisciplinary work, the study smoothly combines such approaches as women's history, environmental history, and male studies. As a result, it confirms the growing awareness that understanding the role of gender is crucial to understanding any historical event or movement.