So Great a Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh

by George Perkins Marsh

Diplomat, linguist, politician, and naturalist, Vermonter George Perkins Marsh was a 19th-century polymath who is now widely considered the father of the modern conservation movement. Marsh was the first man to recognize the extent and destructiveness of the human impact on the environment, and his 1864 book, Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, has been described by the Washington Post as "the wellspring of the environmental movement."

While Man and Nature continues to be cited and read, Marsh's earlier, groundbreaking writings on environmental topics have been unavailable (even though they may be more accessible to modern readers than his sometimes obtuse magnum opus). In an invaluable service to those interested in the development of environmental thought, Stephen C. Trombulak has gathered into a single volume Marsh's most significant conservation writings -- including key passages from Man and Nature -- and has annotated them in the light of contemporary conservation thinking. These speeches, letters, and reports not only document the development of Marsh's own ideas, they also offer insight into the state of conservation thinking in the early 19th century.

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

George Perkins Marsh was an American diplomat and philologist and is considered by some to be America's first environmentalist and the precursor to the sustainability concept, although "conservationist" would be more accurate.