Stewart L. Udall

Thomas G. Smith’s biography of former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall is a valuable contribution to the history of modern environmentalism. Those interested in the history of the “long Sixties” will also find Stewart L. Udall worthwhile, especially for Udall’s candid observations and pithy insider commentaries on the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. Smith draws on an extensive body of sources, including Udall’s personal papers as well as a number of record sets from the Kennedy and Johnson Libraries, to offer a judicious assessment Udall’s accomplishments while also noting his limitations and missteps. Smith suggests that Udall’s role as a conservation champion emerged, in part, from his childhood experiences in rural Arizona, his Mormon upbringing, and service in the Army Air Force during World War II. But, as Smith acknowledges, Udall was “not much of an earth steward” when he entered Congress in 1954. Udall remained a staunch supporter of western reclamation, even as a new generation of conservationists began to oppose it. Only after becoming Secretary of the Interior in 1961 did Udall become interested in the complex of ideas and issues then coalescing into the emerging environmental movement. Udall contributed to that movement, notably with his book The Quiet Crisis, written with the help of western novelist and historian Wallace Stegner. But Smith argues that Udall remained a conservationist in the Progressive Era tradition, favoring efficient resource use through scientific management and preservation of romanticized scenery.

Biography · Champion · Environmental ethics · Environmentalism · Insider · Management · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy