I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer; John Muir wrote. "Civilization and fever and all the morbidness that has been hooted at me has not dimmed my glacial eye; and I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness. My own special self is nothing."In Donald Worster's magisterial biography; John Muir's "special self" is fully explored as is his extraordinary ability; then and now; to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world. A Passion for Nature is the most complete account of the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club ever written. It is the first to be based on Muir's full private correspondence and to meet modern scholarly standards. Yet it is also full of rich detail and personal anecdote; uncovering the complex inner life behind the legend of the solitary mountain man. It traces Muir from his boyhood in Scotland and frontier Wisconsin to his adult life in California right after the Civil War up to his death on the eve of World War I. It explores his marriage and family life; his relationship with his abusive father; his many friendships with the humble and famous (including Theodore Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson); and his role in founding the modern American conservation movement. Inspired by Muir's passion for the wilderness; Americans created a long and stunning list of national parks and wilderness areas; Yosemite most prominent among them. Yet the book also describes a Muir who was a successful fruit-grower; a talented scientist and world-traveler; a doting father and husband; a self-made man of wealth and political influence. A man for whom mountaineering was "a pathway to revelation and worship."For anyone wishing to more fully understand America's first great environmentalist; and the enormous influence he still exerts today; Donald Worster's biography offers a wealth of insight into the passionate nature of a man whose passion for nature remains unsurpassed.
#100133 in Books Greenhouse Linda 2012-03-12Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 4.40 x .40 x 6.80l; .24 #File Name: 0199754543144 pagesThe U S Supreme Court A Very Short Introduction
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Great little bookBy KGI wanted a small and succinct reference book and there may be a better one; but I can't imagine there is. Something I was looking for was a list of all the justices and when they served. This book has that list and it's current; including Justices Roberts and Alito. When one is reading about a certain court decision one can look at that list and see who the other justices were and what president nominated them.Just what I was looking for.5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Brief; Elegant; Lucid; and Opinionated GemBy Keith WheelockI unreservedly recommend Greenhouse's book for distinguished jurists and lawyers; as well as for laymen interested in the Constitution and the functioning of the Supreme Court. There are marvelous nuggets of personal insight and of judicial history and analysis that would enlighten us all. Linda Greenhouse is one of my favorite Supreme Court chroniclers of our era. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and other distinguished awards for her NEW YORK TIMES coverage of the Supreme Court (1978 to 2007; with a two-year break in the mid-80s);Greenhouse is uncommonly well versed in the Constitution; the Supreme Court; and the judicial personalities of recent Court justices. She also displays flashes of personal opinion; especially on abortion; same-sex marriage; and a flexible application of a constitution written nearly 250 years ago Taking early retirement from the TIMES in 2008;Greenhouse teaches at Yale Law School and writes frequent; opinionated TIMES commentary columns. The most recent; 7/10/13; was on the debilitating long-term affect of carefully crafted; compromise Court majority opinions. THE SUPREME COURT is part of the Oxford Very Short Introduction series that; since; 1995; has covered over 300 topics. In only 98 pages Greenhouse provides a thumb-nail sketch of the Supreme Court's history and several turning-point cases. Far more important; she describes; with exquisite examples: how the Court functions; critical issues of law; the long-term impact of public opinion; and how personal the process can become. This is the inside story from a highly-respected insider. (Seven of nine sitting Supreme Court justices attended her farewell party.) As a layman; I have included the Constitution and various Supreme Court decisions in my college American history courses for over two decades; have read many books on diverse aspects of the Supreme Court; and; on occasion; have made public presentations on the Constitution. Greenhouse's book makes me feel like a constitutional and Supreme Court neophyte. Greenhouse has drawn on her forty plus years of experience to capture the essence of the Supreme Court through pithy examples and well-grounded personal opinions. Perhaps most surprising; in such a slim book; is the space devoted to her criticism of life-time appointments for Supreme Court justices. She highlights that this is not the practice globally in any long-established judicial system. However; she does not suggest that a constitutional amendment changing this is even a remote possibility. .0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. This is not a content of book reviewBy J.SheetsNeeded this for a college class; it was much cheaper to download it on Kindle cloud then buying a paper version I will never look at again and I had it right away
