Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation

This turned out to be a moderately interesting monograph examining the social conflicts that resulted when the Adirondacks, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon became protected reserves, and the relevant authorities found themselves with the issue of having created a new class of criminals; the local folks who just so happened to think they had a right to subsistence via their traditional life-ways. That is to say hunting, fishing and collecting firewood. For the most part, Jacoby writes about all the parties with some sympathy, though the Havasupai Tribe probably have the saddest story. If I mark this monograph down for anything it's that it's rather older than I thought it was; old enough that the reissue that I read has an afterword by show more Jacoby dealing with some of the interpretative arguments his book has generated over the years. I'm wondering if there was something a little more contemporary looking at the issues raised. show less