The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt And The Fire That Saved America (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Continuing my new obsession with Teddy Roosevelt! I liked this book and it is certainly well written and researched. The only thing preventing me from giving it four stars is that I found it pretty depressing! The first half is great. In the second half there's a lot of loss and death and destruction...which I should have expected of course! And the political goings-on, lack of care for the firefighters and rangers, etc. just made me feel very sad. I fear things are not much better today. We are still in the grip of profit instead of caring for our world, our native earth, and one another. But I loved hearing more about Teddy, & getting to know Gifford Pinchot. How can you not love a guy who talks to his dead wife for 20 years?! There's a great story about the French ambassador who is forced to swim across a river while meeting with Roosevelt, & a great story about the Italian immigrants who were, at the time, viewed as "even worse than Mexicans!" They said, they came to America because they heard the streets were paved with gold. When they arrived they found a) the streets were not paved with gold; b) the streets were not paved (in the early 1900s West) and c) they were expected to pave them. Quick easy read with good descriptions of the largest, worst forest fire in the US, and the people of the towns in the areas of the burn. The real story is in the politics involved in the history of the Forest Service and the demise of its true intent to save the beauty of the forests. Well described politics of the adversarial ‘robber barons’ and congressional antagonists who gained from their support of the timber industry and the effect on the forest rangers losing to the politics of the time.
What do You think about The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt And The Fire That Saved America (2009)?
I was hoping for a more interesting book but felt that it just dragged .
—yaskamil09
Fantastic read. I learned a lot and really enjoyed it.
—Asma
