VB Reads...The Armchair Historians
Monday, February 11th, 7:00pm
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, through the eyes of the people who lived it. Equally dramatic, though, is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. The robber barons fought him and the rangers charged with protecting the reserves, but even as TR's national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by those same rangers turned 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.
The Big Burn is this year's Whatcom READS book selection. Whatcom READS is a county-wide program that encourages everyone to read and discuss the same book. Read more about Whatcom READS.
