Roderick Nash: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|American historian}}

{{multiple issues|

'''Roderick Frazier Nash''' is a professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at the [[University of California Santa Barbara]]. He was the first person to descend the [[Tuolumne River]] (using a raft).{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}

{{peacock|date=November 2010}}

{{BLP sources|date=August 2011}}

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'''Roderick Frazier Nash''' is a professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at the [[University of California Santa Barbara]]. He was the first person to descend the [[Tuolumne River]] (using a raft).{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}

== Scholarly biography ==

Nash received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] from [[Harvard University]] in 1960 and his [[Ph.D.]] from the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] in 1965.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aapra.org/pugsley-bios/roderick-frazier-nash |title=Roderick Frazier Nash {{!}} American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration |website=aapra.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913131734/http://www.aapra.org/pugsley-bios/roderick-frazier-nash |archive-date=2014-09-13}}</ref> He is the author of several books and many essays. His [[dissertation]], "Wilderness and the American Mind," done under the supervision of [[Merle Curti]], became what has come to be seen as one of the foundational texts of the field of [[environmental history]]. After teaching for two years at [[Dartmouth College]], he was called to the growing History Department at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]] where he joined distinguished historians such as [[Wilbur Jacobs]], [[Robert O. Collins]], [[Frank J. Frost]], [[C. Warren Hollister]], [[Leonard Marsak]], and [[Joachim Remak]]. After witnessing a massivean oil spill in [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] in 1969, he and a number of other faculty members became active within the Universityuniversity and founded an environmental studies program there in 1970. Since the initial 12 graduates in 1972, there have been 4,000 graduates within 300 separate majors. Nash is aan firmadvocate believer infor environmental education and is also an avid [[white water rafting|white-water river rafter]].

== ''Wilderness and the American Mind'' ==

Nash's study in this book<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3PJZAAAAIBAJ&pg=4335,743719&dq=roderick-nash+raft&hl=en|title=Parks Subject of New Special|date=March 7, 1981|work=[[Waycross Journal-Herald]]|page=P5|accessdate=14 August 2011|archive-date=27 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927140120/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3PJZAAAAIBAJ&pg=4335,743719&dq=roderick-nash+raft&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> concerns the attitude of Americans' toward the idea of wilderness. He discusses the different attitudes that American'sAmericans have had toward nature since [[colonization]] and the changing uses and definitions of 'wilderness' in that context. Specifically, Nash describes the evolution of American wilderness conception through Transcendentalism, Primitivism, Preservationism, to Conservationism.<ref name="Wilderness and the American Mind, Nash 1973">{{cite book| title=Wilderness and the American Mind| edition=2nd rev| date=1973| first1=Roderick Frazier| last1=Nash| publisher=Yale UP| isbn=978-0300016499}}</ref> Nash states that if wilderness is to survive, we must, paradoxically, manage wilderness – at the very least, our behavior towards the wilderness must be managed.<ref>Bryan McDonald, "Considering the nature of wilderness: Reflections on Roderick Nash’s Wilderness and the American Mind." ''Organization & Environment'' 14.2 (2001): 188-201. [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=05e9c299be9354d3fe11af5357cef1d4941035b8 online]</ref>

== Personal Philosophy ==

Nash presents America's anthropocentric view as the main enemy to all wilderness preservation. He argues that an ecocentric view is ideal and may work in the long run, but perhaps the preservation of nature and wilderness for the sake of holding resources out for the preservation of our own species would be more salient. Yet, even this strategy is hard for people to grasp, because it requires us to reach outside the present and look to the future. Still, Nash suggests that maybe the simple preservation of the [[Natural environment|environment]] for the sake of our own generation's recreation and health (oxygen sinks, etc.) could provide the impetus to slow some profiteering.

Nash also talks of how wilderness teaches us the value of humility. The problem is that humanity does not want to be humbled. Humans are a proud species who will do anything to avoid being humbled. To this end, we have ripped the wildness from the wilderness and removed all that causes any threat to our existence.

Nash believes that humankind has two choices in the next 1,000 years. We can "trash the planet into a wasteland" or adopt a plan to distill the world's population in 500 "islands" while allowing wilderness to flourish around us.

==See also==

* [[Environmental history of the United States]]

== Bibliography ==

*''The Wisdom of Aldo Leopold'' (Fall 1961) Wisconsin Academy Review Volume 8, Number 4<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AZ75MRIS26ZBBX8O|title=Wisconsin Academy review Volume 8, Number 4 Fall 1961 - UWDC - UW-Madison Libraries|website=search.library.wisc.edu}}</ref>

*[https://books.google.com/books/about/Wilderness_and_the_American_Mind.html?id=q4IxNWXBqOsC ''Wilderness and the American Mind''] (1967).<ref>{{cite book |title=Wilderness and the American Mind |publisher=Yale University Press; 4th edition (September 1, 2001) |isbn=978-0-300-09122-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wildernessameric00nash_0 }}</ref>

*''Philanthropy in the Shaping of American Higher Education'' (1965). Co-authored with [[Merle Curti]]

*[https://books.google.com/books/about/Wilderness_and_the_American_Mind.html?id=q4IxNWXBqOsC ''Wilderness and the American Mind''] (1967).<ref>{{cite book |title=Wilderness and the American Mind |year=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press; 4th edition (September 1, 2001) |isbn=978-0-300-09122-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wildernessameric00nash_0 }}</ref>

*''The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation'' (1968).

*''The Call of the Wild 1900–1916''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=00sYwVRrPcoC |title=The call of the wild: 1900-1916 - Roderick Nash - Google Boeken |isbn=9780807605516 |accessdate=2014-01-03|last1=Nash |first1=Roderick |year=1970 |publisher=G. Braziller }}</ref> (1970).

*''Environment and Americans: The Problem of Priorities'' (1972).

*''The Big Drops: Ten Legendary Rapids'' (1978). Co-authored with [[Robert O. Collins]]

*[https://archive.org/details/rightsofnaturehi00nash ''The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics''] (1989).

*''American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History'' (1990).

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==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

* McDonald, Bryan. "Considering the nature of wilderness: Reflections on Roderick Nash’s Wilderness and the American Mind." ''Organization & Environment'' 14.2 (2001): 188-201. [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=05e9c299be9354d3fe11af5357cef1d4941035b8 online]

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]

[[Category:21st-century American historians]]

[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]

[[Category:Environmental historians]]

[[Category:Living people]]

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[[Category:Environmental studies scholars]]

[[Category:Activists from California]]

[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]