K imberly K. S mith . The Conservation Constitution

Bruce Schulman coined the phrase “resource management state” as a reminder that the scale and scope of American governance at the turn of the twentieth century was never quite as underdeveloped as its reputation suggested. The European model of administration appeared more robust only because American historians were looking for state capacity in all the wrong places. Cultural habit and institutional tradition inclined Gifford Pinchot’s generation toward the frontier safety valve rather than the welfare safety net. With President Theodore Roosevelt’s encouragement, conserving the vast continental nation’s forests, rivers, and wildlife became the focus of an invigorated executive branch at the center of expert-driven national policy. Although historians eventually incorporated Congress into this story of conservation and state building, courts continue to get the short shrift, a lacuna Kimberly K. Smith’s meticulously researched book The Conservation Constitution: The Conservation Movement and Constitutional Change seeks to fill. The Progressive Era judiciary...

Constitution · Frontier · Political science · State (computer science) · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Public Administration · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies