A Conservative Environmentalist
The Life and Career of Frank Masland Jr.
Thomas G. Smith
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
A Conservative Environmentalist
The Life and Career of Frank Masland Jr.
Thomas G. Smith
About This Book
A wealthy textile titan from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Frank Masland Jr. was an ardent political conservative and an equally fervent conservationist who was well known and highly respected in the mid-twentieth-century environmental preservation community. This eye-opening biography charts Masland's life work, telling the story of how he and fellow Republicans worked with Democrats to expand the national park system, preserve wild country, and protect the environment.
Though a conservative conservationist appears to be a contradiction in terms today, this was not necessarily the case when Masland and his compatriots held sway. Conservatives, Masland insisted, had a duty to be good stewards of the earth for present and future generations, and they worked closely with members of both parties in Congress and nonpolitical conservation groups to produce landmark achievements. When conservatives turned against environmentalism during the Reagan presidency, Masland refused to join what historians have termed the "Republican reversal." During his long life of nearly a hundred years, Masland used his voice, influence, experiences with nature, and considerable wealth to champion environmental causes at the national, state, and local levels.
Engaging, informative, and at times eyebrow-raising, this portrait of a passionately anti-statist nature-loving Republican environmentalist documents the history of the twentieth-century conservation movement and reminds us of a time when conservative Republicans could work with liberal Democrats to protect the environment.
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Table of contents
- COVER Front
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Notes to Introduction
- Chapter 1: A Family of Weavers, a Boy of Privilege
- Notes to Chapter 1
- Chapter 2: Carlisle
- Notes to Chapter 2
- Chapter 3: From Carpets to Conservation
- Notes to Chapter 3
- Chapter 4: Nature in the Raw
- Notes to Chapter 4
- Chapter 5: Politics in the Raw
- Notes to Chapter 5
- Chapter 6: The National Park Service
- Notes to Chapter 6
- Chapter 7: Strange Bedfellows
- Notes to Chapter 7
- Chapter 8: On Assignment
- Notes to Chapter 8
- Chapter 9: Contrary Conservative
- Notes to Chapter 9
- Chapter 10: Back to Africa
- Notes to Chapter 10
- Chapter 11: Pennsylvania and the Blessed Cumberland Valley
- Notes to Chapter 11
- Chapter 12: Outside the Gate
- Notes to Chapter 12
- Chapter 13: Environmentalism at Bay
- Notes to Chapter 13
- Chapter 14: Night Comes to the Cumberland Valley
- Notes to Chapter 14
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index