|
|
Product Description
"A bold study of an eco-visionary at a watershed moment in US history."-NatureA timely, thrilling account of a man who, as an explorer, dared to lead the first successful expedition down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon--and, as an American visionary, waged a bitterly-contested campaign for environmental sustainability in the American West.
When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today (thanks to Powell) as the Grand Canyon.
With The Promise of the Grand Canyon, John Ross recreates Powell's expedition in all its glory and terror, but his second (unheralded) career as a scientist, bureaucrat, and land-management pioneer concerns us today. Powell was the first to ask: how should the development of the west be shaped? How much could the land support? What was the role of the government and private industry in all of this? He began a national conversation about sustainable development when most everyone else still looked upon land as an inexhaustible resource. Though he supported irrigation and dams, his prescient warnings forecast the 1930s dustbowl and the growing water scarcities of today. Practical, yet visionary, Powell didn't have all the answers, but was first to ask the right questions.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
- The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons (Penguin Classics)
- Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon
- The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World
- The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
- The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
- In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
- Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border
- The Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim
- She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
*If this is not the "The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the Americ" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link
.
Details were last updated on Nov 4, 2024 08:35 +08.
