Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17361 in Books
• Published on: 1977-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.com
Born in 1915, the mountaineer and outdoorsman David Brower has arguably been the single most influential American environmentalist in the last half of the 20th century; even his erstwhile foes at the Department of the Interior grudgingly credit him with having nearly single-handedly halted the construction of a dam in the heart of the Grand Canyon, and he has converted thousands, even millions, of his compatriots to the preservationist cause through his work with the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and other organizations.

Brower was in the thick of battle when John McPhee profiled him for the New Yorker in a piece that would evolve into Encounters with the Archdruid. McPhee follows Brower into unusually close combat as Brower faces down a geologist who is, it seems, convinced that there is no sight quite so elevating as that of a fully operational mine; a developer who (successfully, it turned out) sought to convert an isolated stretch of the Carolina coast into a resort for the moneyed few--and who provided the title for McPhee's book, wryly opining that conservationists are at heart druids who "sacrifice people and worship trees"; and, most formidable of all, former Interior Secretary Floyd Dominy, who oversaw the construction of a structure that for Brower stands as one of the most hated creations of our time, Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. McPhee offers up an engaging portrait of Brower, a man unafraid of a good fight in the service of the earth, making Encounters an important contribution to the history of the modern environmental movement. --Gregory McNamee

Review
"The importance of this lively book in the unmanageably proliferating literature on ecology is in its confrontation between remarkable men who hold great differences of opinion with integrity on all sides. Mr. McPhee, not pushing, just presenting, portrays them all in the round, showing them clashing in concrete situations where factors are complex and decisions hard. Readers must choose sides."—The Wall Street Journal

"For those who want to understand the issues of the environmental crisis, Encounters with the Archdruid is a superb book. McPhee reveals more nuances of the value revolution that dominates the new age of ecology than most writers could pack into a volume twice as long. I marvel at his capacity to listen intently and extract the essence of a man and his philosophy in the fewest possible words."—Stewart Udall

"Brower and his antagonists are revealed as subtly and convincingly as they would be in a good novel."—Time

Review
"The importance of this lively book in the unmanageably proliferating literature on ecology is in its confrontation between remarkable men who hold great differences of opinion with integrity on all sides. Mr. McPhee, not pushing, just presenting, portrays them all in the round, showing them clashing in concrete situations where factors are complex and decisions hard. Readers must choose sides."—The Wall Street Journal

"For those who want to understand the issues of the environmental crisis, Encounters with the Archdruid is a superb book. McPhee reveals more nuances of the value revolution that dominates the new age of ecology than most writers could pack into a volume twice as long. I marvel at his capacity to listen intently and extract the essence of a man and his philosophy in the fewest possible words."—Stewart Udall

"Brower and his antagonists are revealed as subtly and convincingly as they would be in a good novel."—Time

Customer Reviews

conservation or preservation
I have an environmental background but never bought into the religion. I am not a fan of Brower but I wanted to learn more about him. I gained far more from this book than I had bargained for: McPhee is an amazing journalist, Brower is an interesting guy, and Brower's opponents were just as convicted to their causes.

This is my first McPhee book. In the first few pages, I watched him reveal one of the characters as if he knew him intimately, or designed him in eloquent detail for a novel. It seemed like McPhee really knew these people, and had the ability to let the reader really know these people as well.

The main theme of this book is the difference between conservation and preservation. Do you leave the wilderness alone or do you mine the copper that society depends on? Do you protect the island of the rich and famous, or do you build resorts so kids can visit it? Do you let the river run free for the few who can make it and the rest who are happy to know it's there, or do you dam it for the water and the electricity and the accessability?

What was so beautiful about this book was that each of these people, Brower and his three opponents, all loved the places they were arguing about. They just saw something different. They were all out there to do something good. And often, they would pause, and enjoy the scenery, the moment, the beauty together. It was the connections that gave the contrasts such meaning. It portrayed the struggles many of us have; conserve or preserve?

thought provoking
Interesting stories that force you to consider both sides of several important environmental issues. Solid writing. Even more interesting because the stories are true.

McPhee's Best Work - Still Relevant Today
I read this book for the first time 36 years after it was written, yet it seems like it was written today. The battles now have different names but the perspectives are still the same. My conclusion after reading it is that as a species human's have the capacity to view the same scenery and information and come to radically different conclusions; lets build on it or lets preserve it. The fundamental difference seems to be how an individual views the world around us; our surroundings exist to serve us or we an integral part of the world. This dichotomy in thinking may explain why some of us become engineers and real estate developers and others become artists and conservationists.

McPhee's genius in this book was to get the archetypes of those two positions to spend time together in a proposed open pit copper mine in the Cascades, a potential resort in Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia, and in and around dams along the Colorado River; recording the dialog while describing the landscape. This book is a paean to conservation and one of McPhee's best.