Crisis of the Wasteful Nation: Empire and Conservation in Theodore Roosevelt's America by Ian Tyrrell

JUDGES' COMMENTS

Ian Tyrrell’s book puts together aspects of early twentieth-century US history that are usually kept in separate boxes: conservationism and the international politics of the Progressive Era. Tyrell shows how concerns about natural resources and ‘waste’ guided domestic and international policy agendas. The book’s central figure is President Theodore Roosevelt, but many other public officials, conservationists, and writers — above all Gifford Pinchot, a forestry expert and Roosevelt’s environmental lieutenant — are brought to life in these pages. Tyrell argues that Roosevelt’s presidency provided the opportunity to approach sustainability and nature conservation both nationally and internationally.

The book is based on extensive research in several countries. Its arguments about connections between American conservationists and their counterparts elsewhere are coherent and convincing. The discussion of different natural resources and their dangers — for instance, coal, air pollution and early predictions of what was called the ‘hot-house effect’ — provides an intriguing historical perspective on contemporary issues.