Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America by Douglas Brinkley

[gilda_elise]

Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, Brinkley turns his attention to the other indefatigable environmental leader—Teddy’s distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chronicling his essential yet under-sung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and premier protector of America’s public lands. FDR built from scratch dozens of State Park systems and scenic roadways. Pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Mammoth Cave, and the slickrock wilderness of Utah were forever saved by his leadership.

Brinkley traces FDR’s love for the natural world from his youth exploring the Hudson River Valley and bird watching. As America’s president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt—consummate political strategist—established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern endangered species movement. He brilliantly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression. During its nine-year existence, the CCC put nearly three million young men to work on conservation projects—including building trails in the national parks, pollution control, land restoration to combat the Dust Bowl, and planting over two billion trees.

Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR’s unrivaled passion and drive, and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature—exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are brilliant capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Rosalie Edge. Rightful Heritage is essential reading for everyone seeking to preserve our treasured landscapes as an American birthright.

FDR has long been a hero of mine. Seeing us through the Depression, leading us through most of World War II, I can’t think of any other president who had so much placed on his shoulders. That well may be why most books written about him don’t go into a great deal of depth regarding a third problem he inherited, the desecration of much of America’s environment. Forests had been indiscriminately chopped down, rivers polluted, species hunted to extinction. But here is presented all FDR did to heal America’s battered landscape. In bringing all this information to light, this book has manage to make me admire him even more. Just for that, it deserves five stars.

Along with having over a million trees planted, FDR established grasslands, hundreds of national parks and forests, desertscapes and wetlands, and wildlife refuges. He did more to protect America’s coastlines, marine sanctuaries, and barrier islands than all of his White House predecessors combined. His executive orders and presidential proclamations protects 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 varieties of reptiles and amphibians, more than 1,000 types of fish, and an uncountable number of invertebrates and plants.

Still more, by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, he created millions of jobs for those desperately in need of work. The CCC was responsible for miles of roads laid, the building of recreation rooms at state parks, libraries in remote counties, lookout towers, thousands of miles of telephone line strung, and historical sites restored.

FDR deserves such high marks for much: forests, wildlife protection, park management, both state and national, and soil conservation. But there were some missteps. The many dams he had built devastated numerous riverine ecosystems. But that was done in ignorance. I’m sure that, if he had known the damage that would be done, he never would have ordered them to be built.

On a more personal note, the CCC created two parks in the Phoenix area where I spent many happy moments:

South Mountain Park, which, at 16,000 acres, is the largest city park in the US.



Lookout Point



Celebrating a birthday (January 1987)

And Papago Park





Weekly dog outing (Winter early 1990s)

and last, but not least, they built the high school I attended.



North (Phoenix) High School




Mount TBR 2017 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Lost Girls
2. Hillbilly Elegy
3. Our Revolution
4. Requiem for Athens
5. Dark Angels
6. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
7. The Last Kingdom
8. The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a 50 Year Search
9. And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East
10. Now Face to Face
11. Our Endless Numbered Days
12.Dean and Me: (A Love Story)
13. This Changes Everything
14. Richard III and the Murder in the Tower
15. The Apocalypse
16. The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999
17. The Snow Child
18. Stonehenge
19. Royal Blood: King Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes
20. To the Bright Edge of the World
21. How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends
22. The Hollow Man
23. The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction
24. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
25. In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity Will Define China's Ascent in the Next Decade
26. The Glorious Cause
27. The Motion of Puppets
28. Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?
29. Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West
30. The Lodestar
31. The Greatest Knight
32. Rightful Heritage: FDR and the Land of America

Comments

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

FDR has long been a hero of mine.

Me, too. Whenever I hear arguments against government expenditure and investment I always think of him and how well his strategy worked, but I had no idea he was so caring and aware of the importance of the environment. And all this when he was in such poor health. Thanks for another good rec and the lovely photos!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I had no idea how much he worked for the environment, either! That he could get so much done, save so much, while a depression and a war were going on, is truly amazing.

Finding out that the CCC did so much work in Phoenix was an exciting plus, so I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous pictures - and gorgeous places, which need looking after. The CCC and FDR's other agencies may have been relatively short-lived, but they did some good work that's perhaps obscured a bit by their more obvious reasons for existing. I'm glad they're being remembered in other ways too. Sounds like a good book, this one!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

That the places are there to be looked after is mostly because of FDR. It's amazing how so ahead of his time he was regarding the environment and how important it is to people's daily lives.

It's an excellent book!

[hsv-fangirl.livejournal.com]

Great pics! I'm a fan of FDR too.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

He was a great and wonderful man, no doubt about it.

Glad you enjoyed the pics!

[bradygirl_12]

The CCC planted trees ariund here and was one of the best ways to get people back to work during the Great Depression. :)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

It was a great way to deal with two problems at the same time. So many men found work while the environment was healed. Too bad it's never been used again.

[bradygirl_12]

The Repubs wold never allow it! They would consider it too wimpy. Real men don't plant trees!

Besides, they're too busy trying to yank healthcare away from millions of Americans.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

And spending almost $25,000 to install a secure telephone booth for Scott Pruitt!