The Idea of Wilderness

The Idea of Wilderness PDF Author: Max Oelschlaeger
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300053708
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
How has the concept of wild nature changed over the millennia? And what have been the environmental consequences? In this broad-ranging book Max Oelschlaeger argues that the idea of wilderness has reflected the evolving character of human existence from Paleolithic times to the present day. An intellectual history, it draws together evidence from philosophy, anthropology, theology, literature, ecology, cultural geography, and archaeology to provide a new scientifically and philosophically informed understanding of humankind's relationship to nature. Oelschlaeger begins by examining the culture of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, whose totems symbolized the idea of organic unity between humankind and wild nature, and idea that the author believes is essential to any attempt to define human potential. He next traces how the transformation of these hunter-gatherers into farmers led to a new awareness of distinctions between humankind and nature, and how Hellenism and Judeo-Christianity later introduced the unprecedented concept that nature was valueless until humanized. Oelschlaeger discusses the concept of wilderness in relation to the rise of classical science and modernism, and shows that opposition to "modernism" arose almost immediately from scientific, literary, and philosophical communities. He provides new and, in some cases, revisionist studies of the seminal American figures Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold, and he gives fresh readings of America's two prodigious wilderness poets Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder. He concludes with a searching look at the relationship of evolutionary thought to our postmodern effort to reconceptualize ourselves as civilized beings who remain, in some ways, natural animals.

The Idea of Wilderness

The Idea of Wilderness PDF Author: Max Oelschlaeger
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300053708
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 506

Get Book Here

Book Description
How has the concept of wild nature changed over the millennia? And what have been the environmental consequences? In this broad-ranging book Max Oelschlaeger argues that the idea of wilderness has reflected the evolving character of human existence from Paleolithic times to the present day. An intellectual history, it draws together evidence from philosophy, anthropology, theology, literature, ecology, cultural geography, and archaeology to provide a new scientifically and philosophically informed understanding of humankind's relationship to nature. Oelschlaeger begins by examining the culture of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, whose totems symbolized the idea of organic unity between humankind and wild nature, and idea that the author believes is essential to any attempt to define human potential. He next traces how the transformation of these hunter-gatherers into farmers led to a new awareness of distinctions between humankind and nature, and how Hellenism and Judeo-Christianity later introduced the unprecedented concept that nature was valueless until humanized. Oelschlaeger discusses the concept of wilderness in relation to the rise of classical science and modernism, and shows that opposition to "modernism" arose almost immediately from scientific, literary, and philosophical communities. He provides new and, in some cases, revisionist studies of the seminal American figures Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold, and he gives fresh readings of America's two prodigious wilderness poets Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder. He concludes with a searching look at the relationship of evolutionary thought to our postmodern effort to reconceptualize ourselves as civilized beings who remain, in some ways, natural animals.

Wilderness Ecology

Wilderness Ecology PDF Author: L. F. Ohmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Plant communities
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description


The Boundary Waters Wilderness Ecosystem

The Boundary Waters Wilderness Ecosystem PDF Author: Miron L. Heinselman
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn. : University of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816628049
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Contains fifty pages of information on fires in the area and twenty-nine pages on logging in the area.

Searching for Yellowstone

Searching for Yellowstone PDF Author: Paul Schullery
Publisher: Montana Historical Society
ISBN: 9780972152211
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Schullery's book details the ecological history of Yellowstone National Park.

The Multiple Values of Wilderness

The Multiple Values of Wilderness PDF Author: H. Ken Cordell
Publisher: Venture Publishing (PA)
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
"Gone are those of the 1950s and early 1960s who championed preserving wild lands and who influenced and saw the birth of the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). Gone too are myriad eager managers and proponents of wild land protection of the late 1960s and 1970s who helped rear the fledgling Wilderness system and bring it into adolescence by adding management practices and policy interpretations. In this, the 40th year since the birth of the NWPS, this middle-age federal land system is surrounded by many new faces as its childhood friends have moved on to other callings, have retired, or are no longer with us. Needed in these new times is a clear, comprehensive articulation of the multiple values of Wilderness. The overall purpose of this book is to tell fully what we know about the range of values Americans hold toward the NWPS in a factual, wide-ranging, and science-based way. A multidisciplinary team of authors and researchers clarify the meaning of different types of Wilderness values and present replicable, science-based evidence of these values in this volume. The intended audience is all those new faces who can and do have power over the future of the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System as well as all who seek to influence those who have this power. This book is also intended for teachers, students, and other inquisitive people involved in formal or informal learning and research programs. The authors intend this compilation to help better inform interested and engaged members of the general public about the values of their public Wilderness areas. After all, it is the American citizen who is ultimately responsible and can influence public policy in the greatest measure through their individual and collective voices and actions." -- Publisher.

Wilderness Ecosystems

Wilderness Ecosystems PDF Author: Jerry F. Franklin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biotic communities
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description


Singing in the Wilderness

Singing in the Wilderness PDF Author: Wilfrid Mellers
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252025297
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Mellers (composer and professor emeritus, University of York) begins with the confusion of the (unfamiliar) forest within, audible in Wagner's late and Shoenberg's early works, in Delius's A Village Romeo and Juliet, and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande. The next section, The Forest Without, examines Charles Koechlin's Le Foret Feerique and Milhaud's Le Boeuf Sur le Toit which embrace the real jungle without and the imaginative jungle within. Part 3 shows Villa-Lobos and Carlos Chavez connecting, as Mellers puts it, "the jungle within the mind and the asphalt jungle of a rapidly industrialized metropolis." Part four explores interrelationships between wilderness and machine through the work of Carl Ruggles, Varese, Partch, Reich, and the Australian, Peter Sculthorpe. Finally, the erasure of border between wilderness and civilization is the focus in works by Ellington and Gershwin. Suitable for both musicians and non-musicians. c. Book News Inc.

Accidental Wilderness

Accidental Wilderness PDF Author: Walter H. Kehm
Publisher: Aevo Utp
ISBN: 9781487508340
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Accidental Wilderness showcases how the removal of city rubble and its displacement can result in new urban parklands with significant ecological importance for the health of the city and its residents.

Primitives in the Wilderness

Primitives in the Wilderness PDF Author: Peter C. Van Wyck
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791434338
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Brings the radical environmentalism known as deep ecology into an encounter with contemporary social and cultural theory, showing that deep ecology still has much to learn from such theory.

Ecosystem Management for Parks and Wilderness

Ecosystem Management for Parks and Wilderness PDF Author: James K. Agee
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295968179
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
The need for cooperation among government agencies as well as an interdisciplinary approach to the increasingly challenging and complicated problem of managing park and wilderness areas prompted the University of Washington College of Forest Resources, the National Park Service, and the Forest Service to sponsor an ecosystem management workshop for scientists, planners, and managers. To develop an improved conceptual approach to managing change in ecosystems crossing natural and political boundaries, the workshop focused on defining terms, uncovering areas of misunderstanding and barriers to cooperation, and developing methods to determine the most important problems and issues. Three needs emerged from the prioritization process: a precise definition of the management objectives for park and wilderness lands and how to integrate them with objectives for surrounding lands, nationally as well as site-specific; more information about physical, biological, and social components of park and wilderness ecosystems from both sides of political boundaries; and key indicators of ecosystem condition as well as methods for evaluating management effectiveness. All of these common themes point to a need for more precise direction in management goal setting and more accurate assessment of progress toward goals. The book includes an introductory chapter by the editors and summary in which they outline a direction for ecosystem management in the next critical decades. The other chapters by individual contributors include studies on laws governing park and wilderness lands, paleoecological records that reveal the historic effects of climatic variations on vegetation change, succession and natural disturbance in relation to the problems of what can and should be preserved, managing ecosystems for large populations of vertebrates, the management of large carnivores, effects of air pollution, lake acidification, human ecology and environmental management, the role of economics, cooperation in ecosystem management, and management challenges in Yellowstone National Park.