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

Tyrrell (emeritus, history, Univ. of New South Wales; Reforming the World; Transnational Nation) continues his studies that trace the transnational history of the United States. The author's current, timely title is taken from Rudolph Cronau's 1908 Our Wasteful Nation, in which he focuses on the progressive period and Theodore Roosevelt as the conservation president who set aside federal land and created national forests to protect them. Roosevelt and his cohorts saw conservation as a worldwide issue and instituted multiuse requirements and encouraged reforestation. The president is pivotal to the book; however, the author presents both sides of the conservation discussion at the time when the practice involved not just trees, soils, and animals but also people as America's resources. Included is Roosevelt's imperialism stance, learned from European imperialism, which discouraged abusing new territories to replace losses in the United States. The country needed to look to the future instead of waste resources because the supply seemed unlimited. Tyrrell includes more than 70 pages of notes for further reference.