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The Most Defiant Devil: William Temple Hornaday and His Controversial Crusade to Save American Wildlife
By Gregory J. Dehler
In this groundbreaking work, Gregory J. Dehler chronicles the extraordinary life and career of William Temple Hornaday, one of the most influential figures in the American conservation movement. Hornaday was a tireless advocate for the protection of wildlife, and his work helped to establish many of the national parks and wildlife refuges that we enjoy today.
Drawing on extensive research, Dehler provides a vivid account of Hornaday's life and work. He explores Hornaday's early years as a taxidermist and his subsequent rise to prominence as a leading voice for conservation. Dehler also examines the controversies that surrounded Hornaday, including his clashes with other conservationists and his support for the hunting of certain species.
Ultimately, Dehler argues that Hornaday was a complex and often contradictory figure, but one whose contributions to the conservation movement were undeniable. The Most Defiant Devil is an essential read for anyone interested in the history of conservation in America.
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The late nineteenth and early twentieth century were a brutal time for American wildlife, with many species pushed to the brink of extinction. (Some are endangered to this day.) And yet these decades also saw the dawn of the conservationist movement. Into this contradictory era came William Temple Hornaday, a larger-than-life dynamo who almost uncannily embodies these conflicting threads in our history.
In The Most Defiant Devil, a compelling new biography of this complex figure, Gregory Dehler explores the life of Hornaday the hunter, museum builder, zoologist, author, conservationist, and anti-Bolshevist crusader. A deeply religious man, he was nonetheless anything but peaceful and was racist even by his era's standards, going so far as to display an Mbuti pygmy as a "living specimen" in a zoo. A passionate hunter, Hornaday killed thousands of animals, including some of the last wild buffalo in America, but he was far ahead of his time in his influential views on the protection of wildlife. Hornaday designed and built the New York Zoological Park (which became the Bronx Zoo) and was chief taxidermist for what would later become the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.In this single, fascinating individual, we can discern some of the Progressive Era's most destructive forces and some of its most enlightened visions.
Author: Dehler, Gregory J.
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Illustration: n
Language: ENG
Title: The Most Defiant Devil: William Temple Hornaday and His Controversial Crusade to Save American Wildlife
Pages: 00272 (Encrypted EPUB)
On Sale: 2013-08-12
SKU-13/ISBN: 9780813934105
Category: Science : History
