The Wilderness Warrior

From New York Times best-selling historian Douglas Brinkley comes an eye-opening look at the pioneering environmental policies of President Theodore Roosevelt. Avid bird-watcher, naturalist, and the founding father of America’s conservation movement, Roosevelt set aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest, and he saved entire species from possible extinction, including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk.

This extraordinary biography examines Roosevelt’s many achievements as a conservationist president, and the circle of scientists, authors and explorers who influenced him. As the world faces the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader’s resolution to protect the environment is both an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms.

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” Seven of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. His book The Great Deluge won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

“A vast, inspiring, and enormously entertaining book.” — Jonathan Rosen, The New York Times Book Review (front cover)