In the 1990s, influenced by the deconstructionist movement in literary theory and trends toward revisionist history, a cadre of academics and historians led by William Cronon began raising provocative questions about ideas of wilderness and the commitments and strategies of the contemporary environmental movement. While these critiques challenged some cherished and widely held beliefs -- and raised the hackles of many in the environmental community -- they also stimulated an important and potentially transformative debate about the conceptual foundations of environmentalism.
Reconstructing Conservation makes a vital contribution to that debate, bringing together 23 leading scholars and practitioners -- including J. Baird Callicott, Susan Flader, Richard Judd, Curt Meine, Bryan Norton, and Paul B. Thompson -- to examine the classical conservation tradition and its value to contemporary environmentalism. Focusing not just on the tensions that have marked the deconstructivist debate over wilderness and environmentalism, the book represents a larger and ultimately more constructive and hopeful discussion over the proper course of future conservation scholarship and action.
Essays provide a fresh look at conservation icons such as George Perkins Marsh and Aldo Leopold, as well as the contributions of lesser-known figures including Lewis Mumford, Benton MacKaye, and Scott Nearing. Represented are a wealth of diverse perspectives, addressing such topics as wilderness and protected areas, cultural landscapes, rural/agrarian landscapes, urban/built environments, and multiple points on the geographic map. Contributors offer enthusiastic endorsements of pluralism in conservation values and goals along with cautionary tales about the dangers of fragmentation and atomism. The final chapter brings together the major insights, arguments, and proposals contained in the individual contributions, synthesizing them into a dozen broad-ranging principles designed to guide the study and practice of conservation.
Reconstructing Conservation assesses the meaning and relevance of our conservation inheritance in the 21st century, and represents a conceptually integrated vision for reconsidering conservation thought and practice to meet the needs and circumstances of a new, post-deconstructivist era.
Foreword
PART I. Introduction Chapter 1. Conservation: From Deconstruction to Reconstruction \ Ben A. Minteer and Robert E. Manning
PART II. Nature and Culture Reconsidered Chapter 2. Writing Environmental History from East to West \ Richard W. Judd Chapter 3. The Nature of History Preserved; or, The Trouble with Green Bridges \ Robert McCullough Chapter 4. Going Native: Second Thoughts on Restoration \ Jan E. Dizard Chapter 5. Conservation and Culture, Genuine and Spurious \ Luis A. Vivanco
PART III. Reweaving the Tradition Chapter 6. Expanding the Conservation Tradition: The Agrarian Vision \ Paul B. Thompson Chapter 7. Regional Planning as Pragmatic Conservationism \ Ben A. Minteer Chapter 8. Building Conservation on the Land: Aldo Leopold and the Tensions of Professionalism and Citizenship \ Susan Flader Chapter 9. Scott Nearing and the American Conservation Tradition \ Bob Pepperman Taylor Chapter 10. Conservation and the Four Faces of Resistance \ Eric T. Freyfogle Chapter 11. Conservation and the Progressive Movement: Growing from the Radical Center \ Curt Meine
PART IV. New Methods and Models Chapter 12. Conservation: Moral Crusade or Environmental Public Policy? \ Bryan Norton Chapter 13. Social Climate Change: A Sociology of Environmental Philosophy \ Robert E. Manning Chapter 14. Reconstructing Conservation in an Age of Limits: An Ecological Economics Perspective \ David N. Bengston and David C. Iverson Chapter 15. The Implication of the “Shifting Paradigma in Ecology for Paradigm Shifts in the Philosophy of Conservation \ J. Baird Callicott Chapter 16. An Integrative Model for Landscape-Scale Conservation in the Twenty-First Century \ Stephen C. Trombulak
PART V. Reconstructing Conservation Practice: Community and the Future of Conservation Stewardship Chapter 17. Community Values in Conservation \ Patricia A. Stokowski Chapter 18. Stewardship and Protected Areas in a Global Context: Coping with Change and Fostering Civil Society \ Brent Mitchell and Jessica Brown Chapter 19. Reinventing Conservation: A Practitioner's View \ Rolf Diamant, J. Glenn Eugster, and Nora J. Mitchell Chapter 20. Conservation Stewardship: Legacies from Vermont's Marsh \ David Lowenthal
PART VI. Conclusion Chapter 21. Finding Common Ground: Emerging Principles for a Reconstructed Conservation \ Ben A. Minteer and Robert E. Manning
