Allies of the Earth: Railroads And the Soul of Preservation

American Midwest

by Alfred Runte

Although few Americans use passenger trains today, we still love railroads. We say we want to preserve our national parks, countryside, and urban landscapes, yet we keep tearing into the best of them every day. Once abandoning railroads would have been unthinkable, but we have forgotten the importance of trains for our earth and for ourselves. Alfred Runte challenges our notion that adding highways and airports will help us reach our destinations more quickly, or meet our transportation and environmental goals. He dares us to care about what we see as we travel and to believe railroads hold a key to preserving our national landscapes. As a true visionary with a deep respect for the land and its people, Runte gives us hope that by restoring our trains, we can save our nation's imperilled natural beauty.

195 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Alfred Runte writes for a national following on the meaning and management of protected landscapes. Born and raised in Binghamton, New York, in the upper Susquehanna River Valley, he became the youngest board member of the Susquehanna Conservation Council. While fighting with others to preserve the river, he earned his B.A. from Harpur College of the State University of New York at Binghamton (now Binghamton University). His Ph.D. is from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he helped build the Environmental Studies Program. A childhood camping trip from coast to coast (the family covered 10,000 miles) inspired Al’s resolve to write about the national parks. Now in its fourth edition, his first book, National Parks: The American Experience, continues to guide conservationists around the world in the establishment and management of protected lands.
Al’s hands-on research further includes four years as a seasonal ranger in Yosemite National Park. Visitor enthusiasm for his talks inspired two books, Trains of Discovery: Western Railroads and the National Parks, and Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness. In 1991, Al was centennial historian for the U.S. Forest Service, celebrating the nation’s first forest reserves (1891 1991), for which he produced the exhibit catalogue, Public Lands, Public Heritage: The National Forest Idea.
In 2003, Al helped launch Natureza & Conservação, a new international journal of ecology published in Brazil. He was then invited to deliver the keynote address at the Fourth Brazilian Congress on Parks and Protected Areas, held in 2004 in Curitiba. “It was humbling,” Al notes. “Eighteen hundred people listened expectantly to my recommendations for the future of parks in their country. What could I tell them but to follow their hearts and learn from our mistakes?”
In recent years, Al has busied himself with saving railroads as effective allies of open space, a contribution he details in Allies of the Earth: Railroads and the Soul of Preservation. An expanded fifth edition of Trains of Discovery, now including the national parks of the East, also appeared in 2011 with a new subtitle, Railroads and the Legacy of Our National Parks.
Al’s hobby, of sorts, is writing op-eds for national newspapers. He has also been a guest on Nightline, The Today Show, Forty-Eight Hours, the History Channel, and Travel Channel, and in numerous PBS documentaries. He works out of his basement office in Seattle, supervised by George and Gracie, the family cats. His wife Christine is registrar at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, renowned for its collections of fighter and commercial aircraft.
In April 2011, Al was elected to membership in the College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at Illinois State University (his master’s degree institution) “in recognition of exemplary achievement” as a teacher and public scholar.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyrical ode to railroads and emphatic call to bring them back. While I think he misses making some arguments, allowing that trains might NOT be cheaper or safer than cars, which I believe they are, the arguments he does make are irrefutable. His last two lines sum up this powerful and beautiful manifesto - The land would ask for trains. For the good of America the United, and America the Beautiful, we need to believe in the land again, and go by train.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, my quibbles: could have used better editing plus there's a slightly odd stuffiness to the writing that may come across to some as whiney or preachy... BUT I really enjoyed the book and find myself agreeing with the author about what we lost when we gave up on the passenger train in America and sold our souls to the automobile. My doubts about the author are more self doubts, I think.

[Tim.]

I was recommended this book by the man who painted the cover, so it could go either way...However, I've read a lot of his op-eds, and Runte seems to be fairly confrontational...Maybe a little bitter? Probably won't get to this one until late in the year.

[Jeramey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it like I wanted. The arguments made sense if taken at face value, but it feels like there is a lot under the surface worth exploring.