In this fascinating follow-up to his New York Times bestsellerWilderness Warrior, acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley offers a riveting, expansive look at the past and present battle to preserve Alaska’s wilderness. Brinkley explores the colorful diversity of Alaska’s wildlife, arrays the forces that have wreaked havoc on its primeval arctic refuge—from Klondike Gold Rush prospectors to environmental disasters like the Exxon-Valdez oil spill—and documents environmental heroes from Theodore Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower and beyond. Not merely a record of Alaska’s past, Quiet World is a compelling call-to-arms for sustainability, conservationism, and conscientious environmental stewardship—a warning that the land once called Seward’s Folly may go down in history as America’s Greatest Mistake.
Prologue: John Muir and the Gospel of Glaciers
Chapter 1: Odyssey of the Snowy Owl
Chapter 2: Theodore Roosevelt’s Conservation Doctrine
Chapter 3: The Pinchot-Ballinger Feud
Chapter 5: Charles Sheldon’s Fierce Fight
Chapter 6: Our Vanishing Wildlife
Chapter 7: The Lake Clark Pact
Chapter 8: Resurrection Bay of Rockwell Kent
Chapter 9: The New Wilderness Generation
Chapter 10: Warren G. Harding: Backlash
Chapter 11: Bob Marshall and the Gates of the Arctic
Chapter 12: Those Amazing Muries
Chapter 13: Will the Wolf Survive?
Chapter 14: William O. Douglas and New Deal Conservation
Chapter 15: Ansel Adams, Wonder Lake, and the Lady Bush Pilots
Chapter 16: Pribilof Seals, Walt Disney, and the Arctic Wolves of Lois Crisler
Chapter 17: The Arctic Range and Aldo Leopold
Chapter 18: The Sheenjek Expedition of 1956
Chapter 20: Of Hoboes, Barefooters, and the Open Road
Chapter 21: Sea Otter Jones and Musk-Ox Matthiessen
Chapter 22: Rachel Carson’s Alarm
Chapter 23: Selling the Arctic Refuge