Ian Tyrrell. Crisis of the Wasteful Nation

With Crisis of the Wasteful Nation: Empire and Conservation in Theodore Roosevelt’s America, Ian Tyrrell has produced a compelling book that will certainly change how scholars think about American conservation and Progressive Era history. As one of the preeminent scholars of U.S. history in the world, Tyrrell situates the history of progressive conservation within the context of American imperialism. In doing so, he offers an important reinterpretation of Progressive Era and conservation historiography, suggesting that empire and conservation became “central to the search for national consolidation” (18). Tyrrell traces how American scientists, engineers, empire builders, statesmen, industrialists, and civic leaders engaged with people and natures beyond U.S. borders. He also describes how the nation’s imperial reach shaped Americans’ understanding of nature within the U.S. In one case, Tyrrell highlights how the debates about harnessing, and perhaps destroying, Niagara Falls for hydroelectric power lead one civic leader to proclaim, “A nation that can afford a Panama Canal cannot afford a dry Niagara!” (171). As Tyrrell documents throughout the book, the tension between American empire building and the conservation movement was never far from the surface.

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