Natural States: The Environmental Imagination in Maine, Oregon, and the Nation

Contrasting preservationist, romantic, pastoral, nostalgic, and utilitarian concepts of nature, the authors explore the public expression of these ideals in post-World War II politics in two states rich in natural beauty, but distinct in their postwar economic growth. Natural States argues that, in both states and the U.S. as a whole, the greatest success of the environmental movement came when it was informed by a local, grassroots activism that viewed nature as a common good that should be shared by all.