Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America – A New York Times Bestselling History of Presidential Conservation

by Douglas Brinkley

The acclaimed, award-winning historian—“America’s new past master” (Chicago Tribune)—examines the environmental legacy of FDR and the New Deal.

Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, Brinkley turns his attention to the other indefatigable environmental leader—Teddy’s distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chronicling his essential yet under-sung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and premier protector of America’s public lands. FDR built from scratch dozens of State Park systems and scenic roadways. Pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Mammoth Cave, and the slickrock wilderness of Utah were forever saved by his leadership.

Brinkley traces FDR’s love for the natural world from his youth exploring the Hudson River Valley and bird watching. As America’s president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt—consummate political strategist—established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern endangered species movement. He brilliantly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression. During its nine-year existence, the CCC put nearly three million young men to work on conservation projects—including building trails in the national parks, pollution control, land restoration to combat the Dust Bowl, and planting over two billion trees.

Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR’s unrivaled passion and drive, and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature—exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are brilliant capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Rosalie Edge. Rightful Heritage is essential reading for everyone seeking to preserve our treasured landscapes as an American birthright.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Politics, Presidents, Nature, American History

752 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” His most recent books are The Quiet World, The Wilderness Warrior, and The Great Deluge. Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

Reviews

[judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sitting near a shelf that holds probably 20 of my books on FDR. Some are old--even written by friends and appointees--some are new. The logical assumption would be that if it's important, it's somewhere on that shelf. In the vernacular of the day, my head is exploding. I just read Brinkley's incredibly thorough book on FDR 's personally directed programs to reforest, reclaim, protect land, birds and animals in every one of our states (you're welcome Sarah Palin). I am not an outdoor person in any way. I can tell a tree from a flower but that's about it. FDR, as it turns out, could identify almost every tree, plant, grassland, bird and animal found anywhere in America. He also knew how to take care of them and make them thrive. I didn't read this book closely but I was completely stunned by breadth of what he did. Credit him with the creation of national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges. national forests either created or modified and reforestation to stop and prevent a re-occurrence of the Dust Bowl--for starters. You've heard of the CCC as a way of putting people back to work. It was more than that--even more than the 3 million trees it planted. FDR didn't do this work from the White House. He traveled by car all over the country to make his own observations. It's an amazing story that my own collection of books barely touches. While he was never termed an intellectual, his brain kept on file and accessible more information than anyone I have ever encountered. I'm tempted to say--if he knew it--he used it. We're still benefiting from it every day.

[Andrew Canfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rightful Heritage is the companion book to Wilderness Warrior, a work by historian Douglas Brinkley which focused on the groundbreaking efforts by Theodore Roosevelt to protect his country's natural environment from commercial encroachment. Wilderness Warrior was a superb book, but it is perhaps overshadowed by this outstandingly well-researched masterpiece.

Rightful Heritage focuses on the conservation work done by Franklin Roosevelt, efforts primarily undertaken during his (many) years in the White House. It utilizes voluminous research on Brinkley's part (and, given his schedule, most likely by hordes of researchers as well) to show how much he valued saving the forests, lakes, streams, coastlines, and open lands of the United States.

One cannot read Rightful Heritage and fail to come away recognizing how much of a priority environmentalism truly was for the thirty-second president. Everyday citizens played major roles in bringing about change from the bottom up. The protection of the Joshua trees in southern California resulted in what is today Joshua Tree National Park, but it was the efforts of socialite Minerva Hamilton Hoyte in bringing the issue of their protection to the forefront of conversation was detailed by Brinkley.

From the Joshua trees to the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Key West, FDR's attempts to focus on nature during the worst of the Great Depression were downright admirable. He even one-upped his own cousin and the former president in just how far he went to protect vital habitats. The bureaucratic wrangling over protecting the Florida Everglades from any sort of development made clear the sort of resistance efforts to maintain nature often faced.

Harold Ickes plays a major supporting role throughout the book. An activist Secretary of the Interior, he is constantly butting heads with Secretary of Agriculture-and, like himself, defected former Republican and New Deal acolyte-Henry Wallace over which conservative efforts to emphasize and how to go about emphasizing them. If each of these men are vital supporting actors, the Civilian Conservation Corps essentially joints FDR as the story's primary protagonist.

Despite constant Congressional efforts to gut its funding, the number of national parks improved and the sheer number of trees planted by the CCC-not to mention the number of otherwise unemployed men put to work by it-underscore how much good it did during the 1930s and early 1940s.

Although their work began in Virginia, the transformation of Western states was where the CCC made its major mark. Their role in constructing Red Rocks Ampitheater in Morrison, Colorado, showed just how diverse their contribution to America's outdoor recreation really was. They were hard at work in places like Rocky Mountain National Park, building roads and improving the park's infrastructure.

Perhaps no state received more per capita CCC investment than struggling Utah. The setting aside of of Capital Reef, Zion, and Cedar Breaks National Monuments in that state helped to make possible its present day attraction as an outdoor enthusiasts's paradise.

The coming of an organization along the lines of the CCC was previewed during FDR's time as governor of New York. As part of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA)-a preview as well of coming attractions when it came to New Deal related acronyms-the future president put employed New Yorkers to work planting trees.

FDR's desire to beautify both his "southern" home in Warm Springs, Georgia, as well as his "northern" getaway spot at Hyde Park, New York, are included on several occasions. Brinkley does this to show readers how his crusade was merely an extension of the passions he held for conserving things far away from, as well as close to, home. His extensive knowledge of fish, birds, and various aspects of nature dovetail with this idea that his efforts were truly from the heart and stemmed from a dedication he was willing to personally devote time and energy to.

There are aspects of FDR's policies which receive criticism. The vast number of dams constructed during the Great Depression were zeroed in on due to the fact that they also carried with them destructive effects toward water wildlife. There was controversy over road building at national parks as well. While it meant more people would visit thanks to the ease of movement which it allowed for-particularly for those disabled like FDR-many were concerned about the automobiles it brought into the parks and the possible cheapening of the "real" outdoor experience it engendered.

This book is a valuable historical work and is full of what feels like countless interesting conservation-based stories and anecdotes. One such anecdote took place in 1941 and involved Roosevelt asking Secretary of War Henry Stimson to find a new location for the 10th Mountain Division's ski troopers to train. According to Irving Brant, the spot they had selected near Henry Lake, Utah, was "the solitary unprotected point" between Yellowstone and Rock Lakes for trumpeter swans; therefore, even with possible United States war involvement with the Axis Powers brewing, the War Department was forced to relocate to Camp Hale in Colorado. Tales like this make FDR's hard nosed and determined approach to conservationism clear.

Americans would do well to read it and understand that, despite a depression and impending war, the country had a leader who was willing to prioritize the long haul over the short term. The call to service and visionary aspect inherent in organizations like the CCC and the broader effort to protect the United States' environment show positive aspects of the American spirit.

The Soil Erosion Service (an organization created at Franklin Roosevelt's request in September 1933) was headed by soil scientist/guru Hugh Bennett, and it was from this researcher that perhaps the quote best summing up Rightful Heritage comes. He observed, "The plain truth is that Americans as people have never learned t love the land and regard it as an enduring resource. They have seen it only as a field for exploitation and a source of immediate financial return."

It is by reading this work that readers can see Brinkley's hope that FDR's legacy will be rekindled by a new generation of Americans eager to prioritize conservation over the desire for short term gain and long term degradation of resources.

-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado

[Todd Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see an America whose rivers and valleys and lakes – kills and streams and plains – the mountains over our land and nature’s wealth deep under the earth – are protected as the rightful heritage of all the people.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

What’s the first thing that the name ‘Franklin D. Roosevelt’ brings to mind? Most people (including myself) would probably say The New Deal, followed by polio, WWII, Japanese internment camps, the Great Depression, Social Security, FDIC, the only 4 term president, etc. ‘Conservation’ probably wouldn’t make the top 10. Yet FDR, much like his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt, had a life-long interest in the outdoors, wildlife and environmental preservation.

While FDR had some conservation successes during his early career as New York state senator and governor of New York, they were minor compared with the opportunities that became available when he became president of the U.S. in 1933 in the midst of the Dust Bowl (brought on by severe draught and poor farming practices) and the Great Depression. Winning in a huge landslide, he was given an overwhelming mandate to get the country back on its feet. A cornerstone of his New Deal was a series of relief projects to put the country to work. Roosevelt’s favorite program in this regard was the Civilian Conservation Corps which provided jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. These included structural improvements, transportation, erosion control, flood control, forest culture, forest protection, landscape and recreation projects, range projects, wildlife restoration and others. The CCC employed up to 300,000 young men at a time (women were prohibited) who planted millions of trees and created much of the infrastructure still seen in State and National Parks today.

There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in the process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of this great human principle.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

At the same time, FDR sought to set aside public lands for the use of its citizens. To this end he first strengthened the role of the National Park Service by placing all Federally owned public parks, monuments, and memorials under its control and designated new national monuments including: Cedar Breaks N.M. (Utah), Fort Jefferson N.M. (Florida), Joshua Tree N.M. (California), Organ Pipe Cactus N.M. (Arizona), Capitol Reef N.M. (Utah), Channel Islands N.M. (California), Fort Laramie N.M. (Wyoming), Tuzigoot N.M. (Arizona) and Jackson Hole N.M. (Wyoming).

Roosevelt also sought to protect birds and mammals from overhunting by creating/restoring wetlands for migratory birds and creating numerous wildlife refuge areas. In all, he created 140 national wildlife refuges and established 29 national forests and 29 national parks and monuments.

His efforts weren’t all sunshine and light however. Unlike Theodore Roosevelt, who focused on the protection of wilderness, Franklin had a more utilitarian view of nature. Thus along with the above he supported:
- Reforestation and sustainable harvesting of trees
- Protection of topsoil and sustainable agriculture
- The construction of dams for hydroelectric generation and water reservoirs
- Highway projects to facilitate easy access to natural areas
- The development of amenities and tourist accommodations in state and national parks
Many thought Roosevelt’s development efforts went too far including Benton MacKaye, the “father of the Appalachian Trail”, who called Roosevelt’s National Park Service “a destroyer of the primeval”. Frankly – anyone who has been to the front-country of any national park would be hard pressed to conclude any differently.

I’ve read several of Brinkley’s books including The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America and The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960 both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. Unfortunately I felt that Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America wasn’t as strong as the others. Although it’s clear that Brinkley did a tremendous amount of research for the book, much of it simply reads like a laundry list of dates and facts. Also, Brinkley could have skipped over Roosevelt’s early life and narrowed the focus of the book to that of Roosevelt’s presidency and a history of the CCC to better effect (it’s clear that’s what he really wanted to write about anyway).

[Gilda Felt · Rating 5 out of 5]

FDR has long been a hero of mine. Seeing us through the Depression, leading us through most of World War II, I can’t think of any other president who had so much placed on his shoulders. That well may be why most books written about him don’t go into a great deal of depth regarding a third problem he inherited, the desecration of much of America’s environment. Forests had been indiscriminately chopped down, rivers polluted, species hunted to extinction. But here is presented all FDR did to heal America’s battered landscape. In bringing all this information to light, this book has manage to make me admire him even more. Just for that, it deserves five stars.

Along with having over a million trees planted, FDR established grasslands, hundreds of national parks and forests, desertscapes and wetlands, and wildlife refuges. He did more to protect America’s coastlines, marine sanctuaries, and barrier islands than all of his White House predecessors combined. His executive orders and presidential proclamations protected 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 varieties of reptiles and amphibians, more than 1,000 types of fish, and an uncountable numbed of invertebrates and plants.

Still more, by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, he created millions of jobs for those desperately in need of work. The CCC was responsible for miles of roads laid, the building of recreation rooms at state parks, libraries in remote counties, lookout towers, thousands of miles of telephone line strung, and historical sites restored.

FDR deserves such high marks for much: forests, wildlife protection, park management, both state and national, and soil conservation. But there were some missteps. The many dams he had built devastated numerous riverine ecosystems. But that was done in ignorance. I’m sure that, if he had known the damage that would be done, he never would have ordered them to be built.

On a more personal note, the CCC created two parks in the Phoenix area where I spent many happy moments: Papago Park and South Mountain Park, which, at 16,000 acres, is the largest city park in the US. Last, but not least, they built the high school I attended.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we think of FDR, many things come to mind, least of which is as a conservationist, a staunch protector of our national treasures….animal wildlife, waterways, trees, forests. That normally is associated with TR. Yet in this outstanding, more than 700 pg. , exactingly researched book, Douglas Brinkley delves into the details of FDR’s astounding environmental accomplishments, many under the banner of the CCC, which not only created and protected our public lands, but provided work for young people during the Depression. Just for openers, think: The Great Smokies, Everglades, Channel Islands, Utah Wilderness, Big Bend Nat’l Parks, dozens of State Parks, Mammoth Cave, the building of trails in our national parks, attempts at pollution control, and the remarkable planting of more than 3 billion trees. Despite the many titles that Roosevelt held, he listed his occupation as “tree farmer”. It had its genesis in his Hyde Park/Hudson River Valley childhood, which to the end of his days was the place he held most dear. Despite the fact that I've visited Hyde Park numerous times, because of Rightful Heritage I want to return, this time to view it from the standpoint of FDR's environmental impact.

[Nick Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In-depth, well-written, and deeply interesting, this history feels like a biography of FDR. It's amazing to imagine what is possible in the future given what FDR and his allies were able to accomplish in the past. Some of it--3 billion trees planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps; animal and bird species saved from extinction; families fed through purposeful labor; a president in love with the literal soil and rocks and water of the nation--is unbelievable.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book, but you must have the time to absorb all the wonderful accomplishments that President Franklin D. Roosevelt did. He was an amazing leader and environmentalist.
If it wasn't for him, we would not see The State and National Park Systems as we do today.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few quotes:

"When Ohio was first opened for settlement, in 1783, about 95 percent of its more than 26 million acres were blanketed with forests. As Roosevelt took to the platform to speak at the Cleveland Public Auditorium in early November 1940, only three million forested acres remained. The CCC reforested hilly sections of the Cuyahoga Valley, built bridges, and dammed Salt Run to create Kendall Lake (all or partof what became Cuyahoga National Park in 1974). But even with the CCC's intense efforts, Ohio's existing forests were being cut over at a rate three times higher than the rate at which they were growing. "I see an America," Roosevelt told a cheering crowd in Cleveland just before Election Day, "whose rivers and valleys and lakes-hills and streams and plains- the mountains over our land and nature's wealth deep under the earth- are protected as the rightful heritage of all the people."


"In 1940, one particularly onerous problem the CCC faced in Ohio was trying to save the Cuyahoga River, which had caught fire multiple times. The hundred-mile-long river, which flows through Akron and Cleveland before emptying into Lake Erie, had long since been ruined by industry. Ohioans had dumped so much effluent and debris into the Cuyahoga that the river emanated a rank odor even when it was frozen in the winter."

---

"A phenomenal era in conservation had ended. From 1933 to 1942, the CCC had enrolled more than 3.4 million men to work in thousands of camps across America. Roosevelt had used the CCC as an instrument for both environmentalism and economic revitalization. Its erosion-control programs alone benefited forty million acres of farmland. The success the agency had in building up American infrastructure is impossible to deny: forty-six thousand bridges; twenty-seven thousand miles of fencing; ten thousand miles of roads and trails; five thousand miles of water-supply lines; and three thousand fire-lookout towers. Credited with establishing 711 state parks, the CCC also restored closes to four thousand historic structures and rehabilitated 3,400 beaches."

"Nobody could deny the CCC's enduring legacy from 1933 to 1942: combating deforestation, dust storms, overhunting, water pollution, and flooding. In this way, the New Deal conservation revolution had already made a difference. Even while American troops were fighting in Europe and the Pacific, back home American lands brimmed with native grasses and cottonwoods, desert oases and high-country evergreens. The American land was healing and, in some regions, thriving. Around three billion trees had been planted by "the boys."

---

"It is disturbing," Eleanor Roosevelt would later write about the Jackson Hole fight of the 1940s, "to find how little real enthusiasm there seems to be among our people for the preservation of our national parks."

"Throughout the 1944 campaign, Roosevelt proudly invoked the conservation accomplishments of the New Deal. One-third of America was covered in forestlands. Over 180 million acres of woodlands in forty states were part of the national forest system: enough commercial forests left to maintain maximum sustained yield to win World War II. Furthermore, in 1935, there had been fewer than 30 million waterfowl in America; now there were over 140 million from the Cascades to the Cumberland Plateau, to the Pennsylvania Wilds."

"Around the same time that the president was delivering his West Virginia tree sermon, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Audobon Nature Center in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she expressed the conviction that young people needed education about the natural world to better understand the "interdependence of human kind-the animals, the oceans, the earth, and human beings."

---

"Many top echelon New Dealers weren't quite convinced that Truman would be up to the job as president. Ickes feared that Truman would be too easily intimidated by the stockmen associations, the oil lobby, and timber corporations and would fail to establish new national monuments (or enlarge existing ones) in the Colorado Plateau or wildlife refuges in the Gulf South. As Ickes would sneer in 1948, Truman was the kind of pro-business leader who allowed "the oil companies to get away with murder." Ickes, who left office in 1946, was right. The only national monument that Truman established was Effigy Mounds in Iowa. But in 1947 Truman did bring Roosevelt's beloved Everglades fully into the National Park Service."

"Well into the twenty-first century, Springwood remained the only place in the United States where a president had been born, grown up, and laid to rest. In a very specific provision in his will, Roosevelt had requested that the over half million trees he planted between 1912 and 1945 be protected in perpetuity. If one of his trees died, then another was to be planted in its place. The National Park Service was tasked with overseeing this program. The pond where Roosevelt swam in his efforts to recover from polio and the hemlock hedge were also carefully preserved. Even the river bluffs across the Hudson would be preserved as a memorial.

"My husband's spirit will live in this house, in the library, and in the quiet garden where he wished his body to lie," Eleanor Roosevelt said. "It is his life and his character and his personality which will live with us and which will endure and be imparted to those who come to see the surroundings in which he grew... He would want them to enjoy themselves in these surroundings and to draw from them rest and peace and strength as he did all the days of his life."

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took 744 pages to tell what FDR did to save the environment. I read every word of every page and said “Wow ! He was absolutely amazing !” approximately 744 times.

Maybe the most amazing thing of all is that he was always smiling, always friendly, always in a good mood. I can’t do anything of those things when i’m under pressure, and FDR was under pressure continuously during his four terms in office.

[Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

FDR was an inspiring conservationist . . . Ahead of his times. A few missteps along the way when political expedience got in the way, but for the most part his actions saved our environment while saving our country. Brinkley is a great historian and a great writer. Read this book!

[Shawn Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is great at bringing the reader back to the time period of FDR and the conservation efforts of the early 20th century United States.

[Linda Slonksnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing how much FDR knew about trees, farming, land management. This book is long and mid to later chapters are full of names and organizations, rattling off so many associates, friends, and sometimes enemies that FDR had.
Sometimes it drags on for that reason, but that is what makes it comprehensive. I never knew all the state parks he helped get started. He knew so much more about farming, proper soil management, crop rotation. He did indeed love trees.

[Gene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read that covers one of the best Conservationist Presidents of the USA. He used New Deal groups like the CCC to improve State and National Parks, planting millions of trees in over logged areas, and restore some of the Countries beloved historic sites.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every minute of this history. FDR is a fascinating figure and this book focused on his conservation efforts. He was a nature lover - trees, birds, wild lands and wet lands. He used his power and influence to change the face of the US. He left behind a legacy of National parks, wildlife reserves and conservation projects. Yes, there were missteps along the way, which the author points out. However, our national lands are better because of the efforts of Roosevelt to conserve for future generations.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I knew very little about the CCC, but enough to be interested, particularly in its scope and impact. I found this book, which is not a history of the CCC but covers enough detail to be satisfying. In some ways the book is an eye-opener as to the depth of FDR's appreciation for conservation, particularly silviculture.

It is dense in detail and covers FDR's political life. For me this was sometimes a slog, and I put it down many times in favor of something with a stronger narrative. But as a history of what a leader, and a people, can do when faced with economic and environmental crises--and then war--it is a pointed contrast to how we are dealing with similar problems today, and in some cases rapidly undoing the solutions.

The major omission, I think, was a lack of context for a reader like me who knows next to nothing about our ecological history--did science support this change? And for how long? Is it a standard practice now? Some of this is addressed in the epilogue, but in most of the narrative he kept things rooted in FDR's contemporary reality.

[Earl Ecklund III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Franklin Roosevelt is often overlooked for his conservatism efforts, in this book Douglas Brinkley corrects this in a breathtakingly exhaustive review of FDR's efforts to save America's natural resources, wildlife and along with Harold Ickes's help to expand the National Park Service as well as build up the many state parks. Perhaps the greatest and most underappreciated achievement of The New Deal was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which put millions of people to work creating parks, roads and ranger stations. The one biggest problem with FDR'S legacy is his creation of many hydroelectric projects including Grand Coulee Dam which often failed to account for the destruction of Native American lands and the fisheries associated with the rivers systems that were dammed. As well as Ickes this book also shines a spotlight on many others who assisted in FDR'S efforts including Irving Brant who went to write the greatest biography of James Madison.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read, and a fine companion to 'Wilderness Warrior', full of facts and detail without becoming tedious. Only quibble, as others here have noted, is that quite a few simple errors pop up with startling regularity, and prevents this from being a 5-star book. Too many to list, but a couple will suffice: 1) Palm Springs is NOT an "oceanside" city, unless you're comparing it to maybe Laramie or something; and 2) Carole Lombard's plane did not crash in the Desert Bighorn Wildlife Range. Curious, IMHO, that a book of environmental history would have so many errors related to geography. Still, well worth the effort even given its length. Lots of charts demonstrating the fantastically positive influence FDR had on America's natural history.

[Janis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America, Douglas Brinkley explores FDR’s record and legacy on environmental issues. Brinkley does an excellent job of tracing FDR’s interest in nature from his childhood through his years in New York state government and into his terms as President. I didn’t realize the extent of FDR’s influence even though I had lived near his Hyde Park NY estate and had read several biographies about him. FDR was instrumental in creating many of our national parks and forests as well as many state parks. This is a perfect book to read as the National Park Service celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2019.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, until reading Rightful Heritage, I never realized just how green the Old New Deal was! That's not to say that FDR was perfect - Rightful Heritage is very up front about the points of his policies that actual did severe ecological damage, such as his love affair with dams - but I learned a lot about FDR, his conservation philosophy, how to he used his presidency to pursue it writ large, his successes and his failings. Rightful Heritage was a very informative book, although it was a slog at points, especially toward the end.

[Claudia Skelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thick book with very intense history of FDR's conservation efforts over many decades. This is an aspect of his political history (normally focused on his WWII activities) that I was not familiar with. I had no idea that he was so committed to conservation. Like other excellent Brinkley books, each chapter is full of details of the many other leaders who were involved and with many endnotes, photo images, and detailed data of his efforts.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little encyclopedic sometimes, and I would have liked more context for how these projects were received/what other notions about farming, conservation, etc. were circulating at the time, but all in all an interesting book and a fresh angle on FDR's presidency and the New Deal.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 23 of 2022: Rightful Heritage - Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America (2016, Harper Perennial, 749 p.)

“Through political know-how, legislative muscle, and fearlessness in using executive authority, FDR craft a conservation legacy to match or even surpass that of Theodore Roosevelt.” (p. 585)

Like Brinkley's earlier tome on FDR's distant cousin Theodore, this book details his influence on public lands conservation, preservation, and policy. It could be considered an environmental biography starting with Franklin’s birth and childhood in Hyde Park, NY and seeing the beginnings of his lifelong obsession with conservation and forestry.

Having grown up and lived in the West all of my life, I have heard of FDR’s New Deal “Tree Army”, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the trails and structures they built at national parks. But their legacy extended to building 46,000 bridges, 27,000 miles of fencing, 10,000 mils of roads, and trails, 5,000 miles of water-supply lines, and 3,000 miles of fire lookouts, as well as establishing over 700 state parks, restoring almost 4,000 historic structures, an rehabilitating 3,4000 beaches (p. 526). Much of this work is still with us on public lands today.

But in addition to all that the CCC accomplished as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, between 1933 and 1945, FDR established hundreds of National Wildlife Refuges, almost 30 national parks and monuments, established and expanded over 100 National Forests, and initiated most of the state parks all Americans enjoy today.

He reorganized federal agencies to establish the Bureau of Land Management and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and reorganized the National Park Service so that all Civil War battlefields, all national monuments, and all parks, monuments, and public building in the District of Columbia were managed by said agency.

FDR’s conservation legacy is absolutely huge with respect to establishment of state and national parks and their infrastructure, restoration of forests, wetlands, and migratory bird habitats (leading to the proliferation of bird populations, some near extinction), and the environmental education of the American public. At the time of his death, when the United Nations was being established, he wanted to make his conservation ideals international.

Yet, for all of this his conservation legacy is marred by his love of dams that radically modified riparian environments, especially of the Colorado and the Columbia. But more than that, his Executive Order 9066 that authorized the internment of Japanese American citizens, an action that the author describes as “a flagrant violation of human rights and morally reprehensible” (p. 523). This racist policy forever dims FDR’s legacy, in my opinion.

As with any large research body, the book contains a few minor, but irritating errors: the Snoqualmie and Skokomish tribes are identified as being from Alaska (p. 401) (they are from Washington State); recreational scuba diving was listed as one of the reason FDR designated the Channel Islands as a marine sanctuary in 1938 (p. 422) (scuba was not a commercial viable activity until the invention of the Aqua-Lung regulator in 1942); the original name of Redrock Amphitheater near Denver, Colorado was “Garden of the Gods” and made up of Jurassic sandstone (p. 507) (it was Garden of the Angels and Garden of the Titans; Garden of the Gods is a similar feature near Colorado Springs; the rock is a conglomeratic sandstone of Pennsylvanian age, the Fountain Formation).

All in all, however, the book is a worthy “sequel” of the Rooseveltian legacy in public lands policy, conservation, and preservation.

HIGHLY recommended.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

To a lover of nature, the United States has the most impressive variety and array of accessible natural lands in the world. Almost every year, I travel down from Canada to visit a new region, always planning my trip around the vast array of protected public lands – America’s national and state parks, monuments, national forests and grasslands, wildlife refuges, and national seashores. I know now that so much of this landscape exists for us all today due to Franklin Roosevelt.

Roosevelt was a giant in all fields of nature conservation: preserving wild things and wilderness, implementing wise use measures to improve the productivity of our land base (forestry, soil conservation, water management), and providing recreational opportunities for Americans to enjoy their natural lands. This book tells the story of his accomplishments in all of these areas, which are legion.

The quote on my copy calls this book “enjoyably exhaustive” and that’s quite accurate. It’s a whole lotta Rosie. Brinkley has documented everything, seemingly down every last bird-watching trip Roosevelt went on. Don’t read this if you’re not a nature lover and you want a more traditional overview of Roosevelt – you might come away thinking that he was an arborist who dabbled from time to time in foreign policy matters. This is partly a construct of the way the book was written, but it makes a very strong case that conservation really was Roosevelt’s deepest passion. It becomes amusing in the anecdotes from the World War II years – Roosevelt finalized Big Bend National Park on June 6, 1944 (a date when one suspects he had other matters to attend to), and used his flight to Iran for an Allied summit with Churchill and Stalin to spot some poor forestry practices from the air, and send a letter to the Shah with his suggestions.

But for those of us who feel as Roosevelt did, this book is a treasure. Brinkley’s love for the American landscape shines through in his descriptions of the lands and waters that Roosevelt visited and protected. After reaching the end, you’ll be hard-pressed not to agree that “a tree is measured best when it is down. The tree is down and the historians will find what the hearts of millions of Americans and peoples of the world already knew, that here was the tallest man America has ever given the world.”

This is the 3rd volume in Brinkley’s American wilderness trilogy, following excellent books on Theodore Roosevelt and the preservation of Alaska. I hope that one day he may write a fourth, on the great achievements of the 1960s such as the Wilderness Act and the Endangered Species Act. As with all of the books I have read by Brinkley, there are some minor quibbles. Reading Brinkley is like riding shotgun on an extended car chase – he writes at a breathless pace, with every paragraph bringing a new quote and anecdote. Brinkley rarely takes his foot off the gas and helps the reader place each individual happening into a larger context. But these flaws don’t take away from the beauty of this book.

I’ll close with my favourite quote from the book – not FDR’s, but one I’m sure he would agree with: “Clear waters, green fields and forests, fertile soils, an abundance of wild things, and freedom to use and enjoy these resources properly – these I hope America will always have.” Amen to that.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is like a historical roller coaster ride through the greatest conservation movement and enactment of securing large tracts of America for the use and enjoyment of the citizen. After our country fell sway to the Industrial age, powerful men went in a scooped up land to bend it to their needs. They were headless in their misuse of the environment in the name of profit and they held all of the strings of power. Right along side this raping of the American landscape through industrial pollution of our water ways and air, the extraction of coal and oil, the denuding of the great American forest lands there also grew a number of wealthy and otherwise committed men and women who could see how this misuse of the environment was destroying the very land that they loved and cherished.
The conservationists organized and supported men in power that had an equal concern, many of whom left their original political alliances to join Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party, these people were the hunters, birdwatchers, garden club people, great landscape designers and architects, silviculturists who were committed to the salvation of their land. To whom clean air, clean water, woodlands and watersheds and the great biodiversity of this nation became their undying cause to protect. They all came from the Progressive movements that believed that nature was a healing force, many believed in Jefferson's agrarian ideals. Many were themselves wealthy industrialist themselves others were people who grew up with the land and were drawn to the great voices of concern led by Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, the Delanos, Olmstead, Pinchot and Bennet and their ideas were spread by a growing group of conservationists.
Franklin grew up with a father deeply committed to conservation, his uncle Teddy an activist for conservation and the belief that the great wilderness areas should be held for the use of all Americans, and the Delanos who were also very active. Through these people he met as a child some of the most influential men of that time in this movement. His isolated childhood made him an avid bird watcher and collector, a lover of trees and unspoiled spaces...all of these passions created the very things that made his Presidential administration one of the most active and successful savior of the great wonders that were to become our National and State Park systems, the great wilderness areas, the restored wetlands and the salvation of many of the near extinct American wildlife species that were threatened, the restorer of the decimated plain states whose topsoil disappeared in the dust bowl, and all of this occurred in the depth of the Great Depression.
When FDR came to power, the stock market was down 89%, 25% of working age Americans (16,000,000 men) were unemployed, we were in the midst of a great drought through the plains to the west coast and the spirit of most had little hope in their future. One of his first acts in the first 100 days was to form the CCCs, to get young men ages 18-28 off the streets and organized into camps throughout the country who would work for $30.00/per week, $22. to $25.00 to be sent home to their families, the rest to be their spending money. They were organized in companies of 200 and led by veterans, teachers, architects, biologist, climatologists, and naturalists and would be sent to work in National Parks and to the Forest Service. By 1940 these young men would plant 7.4 million trees, build 512,093 erosion control check dams, 40 miles of trails, 71,000+ miles of telephone lines, 104,000 miles of truck trails, 40,000 bridges, 45,000 buildings employing 2.5 million young men; about 25% of all American youth.
The Public Works Administration also started in those first 100 days employed "3.3 million men who would build 26,000 large state sponsored capital investment projects;bridges, trestles, pipelines, dams, water and sewage treatment systems, stadiums, tunnels and low income housing... between 1933- 1943 9,000 highways were built by PWA work-relief crews, 800 health care structures, 600 city halls and courthouses, 50 housing projects, 500 sewage disposal plants and signature structures like the Conservatory Garden & Zoo in New York's Central Park, Chicago's Outer Drive Bridge and the San Francisco Bay Area Bridge, the Grand Coolie, Bonneville and Fort Peck Dams and 1000s of public schools.
During this time the largest amount of land was transferred into the Forest Service, new designated Wilderness Areas, Monument Areas, National and State Parks, both to secure areas from wholesale destruction from commercial logging and mining and development and to preserve it for future generations of Americans and to create survival areas for the uniquely American wildlife species which were being decimated from the destruction of their habitat and over hunting.
The amount of things that were accomplished in a 10 year period were astonishing, the political maneuvering it took to get both Republicans and Democrats aboard to both appreciate the acquisition of lands and the funding of projects to numerous to mention was amazing.
There were many mistakes made, the use of DDT, the introduction of kudzu and the damage some dams did to fish spawning areas in the west pale next to the accomplishments.
We have again come of an age much like the 1800s to early 1920 when our self absorption has allowed wanton destruction of the environment in the service of jobs and profit is coming home to roost. Pollution again is going unchecked, safe drinking water is under threat, and things like mountain top removal, fossil fuel extraction with growing number of spills and ground water pollution, corporate agribusiness' reliance on pesticides and fungicides are threatening our environment and despoiling our land and future. Too many of our politicians are more in league with big money donors who are looking for short term profits over environmental protection, as though their money will buy them their own source of clean water and clean air to breathe are threatening the common good. Where are we going to find the voices that will help us save our land for our children and grandchildren?
Excellent and timely read.

[Joe Koennecke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible story about a program that I think is an imperative for our future. One of many books I have read on th CCC and American conservation and parks over the years. Makes a great companion to some of the authors other books, specifically "the wilderness warrior".

Like Brinkley's other works this is extremely detailed and intimatly researched which does have th added drawback of being some what difficult to read at times if you are just looking for a story to read. However, it is very much in keeping with his style so you should know what to expect if you pick it up.

I was surprised to read the very minimal 2 pages about modern efforts to revisit the program that was so important but was cut due to funding in times of war. I often think this is a better solution than many programs we currently offer for a variety of reasons but never understood why it didn't come back. It turns out there have been efforts to do so but know have made it vary far for what can only be a combination of reasons but without a champion like TR or FDR I can see why it would succeed in the political climate of today.

Great read and solution to so many problems of yesterday and tomorrow.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly readable, relevant and informative. FDR not only wanted to save the country from depression and fascism. He wanted the save the country. And the world. "Conservation is the basis of permanent peace," indeed. Other lines that got and kept this reader's attention:

"I believe in the inherent right of every citizen to employment at a living wage," FDR said and he used public works to do so, at least in part.

"We have been, in 150 years of constitutional existence, a wasteful nation, a nation that has wasted its natural resources and, very often, its human resources." (FDR)

"Nine people out of ten, visiting our national parks, stay within a half a mile of the motor roads and hotels." (Dept of Interior Ickes, and still rings true, in my experience).

"Preservation of values [that] technology will destroy...is indeed the New Frontier." (William O Douglas in early 60s and never more true).

Brinkley sums it up beautifully. FDR's accomplishments in forestry, wildlife protection, state and
national parks and soil conservation were extraordinary. He screwed up with pesticides, dams and, arguably, some the roads thru the parks which led to Ickes' comment.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work...More important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work." - FDR

FDR had some famous relatives in the field of conservation (looking at you, TR!), but what most people didn't know was that FDR had loved nature from the start and always put it at the top of his to-do lists, even during wartime. (Maybe it was bumped down a bit)

It all started in childhood. His dad, James, taught him that he should always be respectful to nature, along with the fact that he should be nice to trees, because they last way longer than him.

So FDR grew up playing with nature. And he started kindling a lifelong love of nature.

The story is amazing, and it goes on to tell how he became a senator, then governor, then president. It shows how the New Deal was made, how he pulled of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how he established numbers of national parks that we enjoy today.

Thank you, FDR.

5***out of 5 stars

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brinkley has a fascinating and very unique take on FDR as a ground-breaking environmentalist, who went beyond TR's conservationism to protect ecosystems and inculcate a love of nature in coming generations of Americans via the CCC work project, the controversial "shelterbelt" soil protection effort, the expansion of the National Park System, and the development of the National Forest system. Brinkley's work , published in 2015, can be seen as the second book in a trilogy that begins with the TR book, and ends this year, with the Silent Spring Revolution, which features post-war presidencies. What sets this book apart is that FDR is usually thought of in terms of the New Deal and WWII -- never the environment. Yet Brinkley makes a compelling case that at heart, Roosevelt was a gentleman farmer -- like Jefferson --principally concerned with the earth, geology, animals and plants, and how humans interact with them. His own estate in Hyde Park was itself a Tree Farm. In this regard, Roosevelt was something of a very conscientious king, with a great concern for his country's legacy. Because of the book's narrow take on the environment it is not an ideal primary source, for FDR ,especially compared to Doris Kearns Goodwin's unmatched Team of Rivals. It is also unevenly edited, especially in its last third, where subjects and even language are repeated. This is a long book that probably tried the efforts of its editors. But it is also an essential part of Brinkley's environmental trilogy-- which, as a whole, moves the needle and is quite wonderful.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an epic account of FDR's efforts to conserve the flora and fauna of our nation. Our country owes him a debt of gratitude that is priceless. His childhood in Hyde Park, NY primed him to transfer his love of nature to all the lands in his domain. Obtaining lands to conserve national forests, build national monuments and national parks is a legacy that cannot be duplicated. True that not all action taken was successful in conserving our natural resources, such as the dams that killed waterways and fish. All in all, FDR did a masterful job of amassing a plethora of places that are open to all for the enjoyment of the great outdoors. FDR found a way to employ the thousands of men who lost their jobs in the depression in CCC camps. The men learned a trade while building these parks. Whether sailing the seven seas, sitting on the porch at Top Cottage, or protecting the beaches on the Pacific Coast during World War II, thoughts of nature were never far from his thoughts.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

The National Park Service turned 100 years old in 2016, the year Rightful Heritage was published. How fitting.

A long one, and admittedly, not one I coasted through; however, I'm glad to have read it. I had so many oohhs and aahhs while piecing my childhood and limited FDR knowledge together with Douglas' thorough research and construction of his book. Who knew FDR contributed as much as, or even more than his distant cousin Teddy Roosevelt, to the environmental movement of our country. I feel a little smarter.

By the way, my daddy (who was born in 1921) occasionally used this phrase when describing someone's joy: "He was happier than a sissy in a CCC camp." Not exactly a kind thing to say these days, but I smiled throughout as I read about FDR's founding of the camps because I'd see my dad's smile and hear his laugh.