Book ID: CBB502336211

Defending Giants: The Redwood Wars and the Transformation of American Environmental Politics (2019)

unapi

Speece, Darren (Author)
Sutter, Paul S. (Author)


University of Washington Press


Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 384
Language: English

Giant redwoods are American icons, paragons of grandeur, exceptionalism, and endurance. They are also symbols of conflict and negotiation, remnants of environmental battles over the limits of industrialization, profiteering, and globalization. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, logging operations have eaten away at the redwood forest, particularly areas covered by ancient giant redwoods. Today, such trees occupy a mere 120,000 acres. Their existence is testimony to the efforts of activists to rescue some of these giants from destruction. Very few conservation battles have endured longer or with more violence than on the North Coast of California, behind what locals call the Redwood Curtain.Defending Giants explores the long history of the Redwood Wars, focusing on the ways rural Americans fought for control over both North Coast society and its forests. Activists defended these trees not only because the redwood forest had dwindled in size, but also because, by the late twentieth century, the local economy was increasingly dominated by multinational corporations. The resulting conflict―the Redwood Wars―pitted workers and environmental activists against the rising tide of globalization and industrial logging in a complex war over endangered species, sustainable forestry, and, of course, the fate of the last ancient redwoods. Activists perched in trees and filed lawsuits, while the timber industry, led by Pacific Lumber, fought the lawsuits and used their power to halt reform efforts. Ultimately, the Clinton administration sidestepped Congress and the courts to negotiate an innovative compromise. In the process, the Redwood Wars transformed American environmental politics by shifting the balance of power away from Congress and into the hands of the executive branch.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Neil M. Maher (2017) Review of "Defending Giants: The Redwood Wars and the Transformation of American Environmental Politics". American Historical Review (pp. 1657-1658). unapi

Review Mark Spence (April 2018) Review of "Defending Giants: The Redwood Wars and the Transformation of American Environmental Politics". Environmental History (pp. 434-436). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB502336211/

Similar Citations

Book David Vogel; (2018)
California Greenin': How the Golden State Became an Environmental Leader (/isis/citation/CBB569183355/)

Article Sarah R. Hamilton; (April 2017)
Environmental Change and Protest in Franco’s Spain, 1939–1975 (/isis/citation/CBB189837597/)

Book Farmer, Jared; (2013)
Trees in Paradise: A California History (/isis/citation/CBB001422326/)

Article Noel Ndumeya; (2020)
Conserving Wildlife Resources in Zimbabwe: Reflections on Chirinda Forest, 1920s-1979 (/isis/citation/CBB478247589/)

Book Thomas J. Osborne; (2017)
Coastal Sage: Peter Douglas and the Fight to Save California's Shore (/isis/citation/CBB731265903/)

Book Lewis, Michael L.; (2007)
American Wilderness: A New History (/isis/citation/CBB000930098/)

Book Jeff Schauer; (2019)
Wildlife between Empire and Nation in Twentieth-Century Africa (/isis/citation/CBB609669433/)

Book John F. Freeman; (2015)
Black Hills Forestry: A History (/isis/citation/CBB472383050/)

Book Costlow, Jane T; (2013)
Heart-Pine Russia: Walking and Writing the Nineteenth-Century Forest (/isis/citation/CBB001420376/)

Book Carl Death; (2016)
The Green State in Africa (/isis/citation/CBB850595474/)

Book Otis Graham; (2015)
Presidents and the American Environment (/isis/citation/CBB836718426/)

Book Mark Kinzer; (2017)
Nature's Return: An Environmental History of Congaree National Park (/isis/citation/CBB634126477/)

Chapter Jørgensen, Dolly; (2013)
Environmentalists on Both Sides: Enactments in the California Rigs-to-Reefs Debate (/isis/citation/CBB001420340/)

Book Mary Amanda Helmich; Kevin V. Bunker; (2018)
A legacy in brick & iron: Sacramento's Central & Southern Pacific Railroad shops (/isis/citation/CBB258498215/)

Book Tal, Alon; (2013)
All the Trees of the Forest: Israel's Woodlands from the Bible to the Present (/isis/citation/CBB001420351/)

Article Michael J. Dockry; Nancy Langston; (January 2019)
Indigenous Protest and the Roots of Sustainable Forestry in Bolivia (/isis/citation/CBB998291742/)

Article Amatangelo, Kathryn L.; Johnson, Sarah E.; Rogers, David A.; Waller, Donald M.; (2014)
Trait--Environment Relationships Remain Strong despite 50 Years of Trait Compositional Change in Temperate Forests (/isis/citation/CBB001421449/)

Authors & Contributors
Kinzer, Mark
Death, Carl
Noel Ndumeya
Dockry, Michael J.
Vogel, David
Mary Amanda Helmich
Concepts
Forests and forestry
Environmentalism
Environmental policy
Wildlife conservation
Trees
Environmental history
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
Ancient
20th century, early
Places
United States
California (U.S.)
South Carolina (U.S.)
Malawi
Uganda
Zimbabwe
Institutions
Union Pacific Railway Company
Southern Pacific Railroad Company
Central Pacific Railroad Company
Congaree National Park (United States)
California State Railroad Museum
United States. National Park Service
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment