Timothy Egan: The big burn (2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
324 pages
English language
Published Aug. 28, 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire of August, 1910, and Teddy Roosevelt's pioneering conservation efforts that helped turn public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service with consequences felt in the fires of today.
Great story and story telling. Sometimes I have trouble focusing on the narrator's deep gravely voice.
Tremendously well-told history; fantastic characters. The title is a bit of click-bait, though. It's much more Gifford Pinchot's story than TR's and while the forest service and the fire certainly transformed elements of policy and outlook in America, 'Saved' was not really part of the thesis.
I loved the story and highly recommend it.
