Encounters with the Archdruid
Narratives About a Conservationist and Three of His Natural Enemies
ISBN10: 0374514313
ISBN13: 9780374514310
Trade Paperback
256 Pages
$18.00
CA$24.00
The narratives in this book are of journeys made in three wildernesses—on a coastal island, in a Western mountain range, and on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Four men are involved: Charles Park, a mineral engineer who believes that our economic well-being rests on finding metals and extracting them from the earth wherever they are found; Charles Fraser, a resort developer who regards all conservationists as druids ("religious figures who sacrifice people and worship trees"); Floyd Dominy, a builder of gigantic dams, who grew up in dry Western country and deeply believes in the impoundment of water; and David Brower, the most militant conservationist in the world. In turn, Park, Fraser, and Dominy encounter Brower, whether in rapids, in forests, on mountain trails, on a raft, in a jeep, or on foot—now reserved, now friendly, now fighting hard across a philosophical divide.
Reviews
Praise for Encounters with the Archdruid
"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
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
Encounters with the Archdruid
PART 3
A River
Floyd Elgin Dominy raises beef cattle in the Shenandoah Valley. Observed there, hand on a fence, his eyes surveying his pastures, he does not look particularly...
About the author
John McPhee
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