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Roderick Frazier Nash is a professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at the
University of California Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the Un ...
. He was the first person to descend the
Tuolumne River The Tuolumne River (Yokutsan: ''Tawalimnu'') flows for through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Originating at over above sea level in Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne ...
using a raft.


Scholarly biography

Nash received his
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1960 and his Ph.D. from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
in 1965. He is the author of several books and many essays. His dissertation, "Wilderness and the American Mind," done under the supervision of
Merle Curti Merle Eugene Curti (September 15, 1897 – March 9, 1996) was a leading American historian, who taught many graduate students at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin, and was a leader in developing the fields of social history a ...
, became what has come to be seen as one of the foundational texts of the field of
environmental history Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history first emerged in the United States out of th ...
. After teaching for two years at
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
, he was called to the growing History Department at the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
where he joined distinguished historians such as Wilbur Jacobs, Robert O. Collins, Frank J. Frost, C. Warren Hollister,
Leonard Marsak Leonard Marsak (1924–2013) was a scholar of Modern European History, especially intellectual history. Biography After military service during World War II, Marsak earned his B.S. in Literature at Cornell University in 1948, (and studied for a se ...
, and
Joachim Remak Joachim Remak (1920 Berlin – Santa Barbara, Cal., 2001) was a historian of Modern Europe, especially of Germany and World War I. Born in Berlin, Germany, he fled Nazi Germany in 1938 for the United States. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in history ...
. After witnessing a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969, he and a number of other faculty members became active within the University 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 a firm believer in environmental education and is also an avid white-water river rafter.


''Wilderness and the American Mind''

Nash's study in this book concerns the attitude of Americans' toward the idea of wilderness. He discusses the different attitudes that American's have had toward nature since
colonization Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
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. 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.


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 difficult for people to grasp, as it requires us to reach outside the present and look to the future. Still, Nash suggests that maybe the simple preservation of the
environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
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.


Bibliography


''Wilderness and the American Mind''
(1967). *''The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation'' (1968). *''The Call of the Wild 1900–1916'' (1970). *''Environment and Americans: The Problem of Priorities'' (1972). *''The Big Drops: Ten Legendary Rapids'' (1978). Co-authored with Robert O. Collins
''The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics''
(1989). *''American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History'' (1990). *''The Nervous Generation: American Thought, 1917–1930'' (1990). Also by Nash, Roderick: *''From These Beginnings: A Biographical Approach to American History'', Volume I and II.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Roderick Harvard University alumni 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Environmental historians Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty American non-fiction environmental writers Environmental studies scholars Activists from California American male non-fiction writers