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Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness
Bestselling author David Gessner’s wilderness road trip inspired by America’s greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, is “a rallying cry in the age of climate change” (Robert Redford).
“Leave it as it is,” Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. “The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” Roosevelt’s pronouncement signaled the beginning of an environmental fight that still wages today. To reconnect with the American wilderness and with the president who courageously protected it, acclaimed nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner embarks on a great American road trip guided by Roosevelt’s crusading environmental legacy.
Gessner travels to the Dakota badlands where Roosevelt awakened as a naturalist; to Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon where Roosevelt escaped during the grind of his reelection tour; and finally, to Bears Ears, Utah, a monument proposed by Native Tribes that is currently embroiled in a national conservation fight. Along the way, Gessner questions and reimagines Roosevelt’s vision for today’s lands.
“Insightful, observant, and wry,” (BookPage) Leave It As It Is offers an arresting history of Roosevelt’s pioneering conservationism, a powerful call to arms, and a profound meditation on our environmental future.
“Leave it as it is,” Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. “The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” Roosevelt’s pronouncement signaled the beginning of an environmental fight that still wages today. To reconnect with the American wilderness and with the president who courageously protected it, acclaimed nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner embarks on a great American road trip guided by Roosevelt’s crusading environmental legacy.
Gessner travels to the Dakota badlands where Roosevelt awakened as a naturalist; to Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon where Roosevelt escaped during the grind of his reelection tour; and finally, to Bears Ears, Utah, a monument proposed by Native Tribes that is currently embroiled in a national conservation fight. Along the way, Gessner questions and reimagines Roosevelt’s vision for today’s lands.
“Insightful, observant, and wry,” (BookPage) Leave It As It Is offers an arresting history of Roosevelt’s pioneering conservationism, a powerful call to arms, and a profound meditation on our environmental future.
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First published June 9, 2020
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About the author
David Gessner
39 books121 followersDavid Gessner is the author of fourteen books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling, All the Wild That Remains, Return of the Osprey, Sick of Nature and Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness.
Gessner is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other magazines, and his prizes include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay “Learning to Surf.” He has also won the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, "The Call of the Wild."
He is married to the novelist Nina de Gramont, whose latest book is The Christie Affair.
“A master essayist.” –Booklist
“For nature-writing enthusiasts, Gessner needs no introduction. His books and essays have in many ways redefined what it means to write about the natural world, coaxing the genre from a staid, sometimes wonky practice to one that is lively and often raucous.”—Washington Post.
“David Gessner has been a font of creativity ever since the 1980s, when he published provocative political cartoons in that famous campus magazine, the Harvard Crimson. These days he’s a naturalist, a professor and a master of the art of telling humorous and thought-provoking narratives about unusual people in out-of-the way-places."
--The San Francisco Chronicle
Gessner is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other magazines, and his prizes include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay “Learning to Surf.” He has also won the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, "The Call of the Wild."
He is married to the novelist Nina de Gramont, whose latest book is The Christie Affair.
“A master essayist.” –Booklist
“For nature-writing enthusiasts, Gessner needs no introduction. His books and essays have in many ways redefined what it means to write about the natural world, coaxing the genre from a staid, sometimes wonky practice to one that is lively and often raucous.”—Washington Post.
“David Gessner has been a font of creativity ever since the 1980s, when he published provocative political cartoons in that famous campus magazine, the Harvard Crimson. These days he’s a naturalist, a professor and a master of the art of telling humorous and thought-provoking narratives about unusual people in out-of-the way-places."
--The San Francisco Chronicle
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
August 13, 2020
I attacked this book w/ Teddy-like vigor and enthusiasm. All that I can say is, “Bully!” Like my friend and colleague David, I find TR endlessly fascinating, and a bit frustrating. Yet, besides his amazing energy, determination, and intellectual depth and versatility, it is TR’s capacity for adaptation and growth that has always set him apart from other presidents and leaders. David does a fantastic job of weaving that tale of the growing, thinking, feeling, and empathetic TR with the contradictions in his writings and speeches, as well as how TR and his spirit still inhabits the bones and drive of our modern environmental movement.
I also valued David's call to action and found his discussions about the many sides of public lands, as well as environmental preservation, thought-provoking. This is especially true for me this week. High in the Appalachians on vacation, I have sat in a porch chair (a rocking chair as loved by TR) in awe of the inspiring ancient vistas. I understand the feelings that David conveys. A quiet within. A peace. Stepping back from the hyper drive of work and modern living, I have enjoyed the sounds of birds, the busy buzz of insects and the hard work of bees and fetching butterflies on the colorful wild flowers. Indeed, leave it as it is.
I also valued David's call to action and found his discussions about the many sides of public lands, as well as environmental preservation, thought-provoking. This is especially true for me this week. High in the Appalachians on vacation, I have sat in a porch chair (a rocking chair as loved by TR) in awe of the inspiring ancient vistas. I understand the feelings that David conveys. A quiet within. A peace. Stepping back from the hyper drive of work and modern living, I have enjoyed the sounds of birds, the busy buzz of insects and the hard work of bees and fetching butterflies on the colorful wild flowers. Indeed, leave it as it is.
November 14, 2020
Is it a biography, an autobiography, or an essay about the environment? It tries to be all three at once, and doesn't do any of them well. Not my cup of tea.
August 25, 2020
Thoughts soon.
August 22, 2020
In 2012, David Gessner headed west on a 9,000-mile road trip, accompanied by the words and spirits of two saints of the American environmental movement. In pairing the “intellectual godfather” Wallace Stegner with the rabble-rousing laureate Edward Abbey, Gessner’s All the Wild that Remains hoped to reawaken readers to the indispensable relationship between humans and the land—and perhaps inspire them to do something more than read about it.
Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness reprises the road trip theme as well as its quest, this time roughly shadowing TR’s legendary 14,000-mile whistle-stop tour that combined camping with presidential campaigning. Gessner’s new spirit guide contains in one figure the contradictory multitudes embodied in Stegner and Abbey.
Among presidents, our 26th has no peer in influencing how America sees its public lands. Roosevelt was zealous, knowledgeable and deeply in love with the outdoors. He wrote as lover—impulsive, attentive, and full of himself. But he also had in great measure the capacity to evolve and to step out of his immense self-regard, to perceive “there are worlds beyond the human world.”
The book’s title derives from Roosevelt’s 1903 speech at the edge of a Grand Canyon already facing encroachment from railroad-ticket tourism.
“Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.”
Therein lies the conundrum of conservation. Man shapes and mars the world as no other creature. The essential and ongoing act of saving the work of ages is protecting it from our expansionist human nature. In the speech, TR was arguing for preserving the Grand Canyon as a sight for future generations, and in that moment, he helped arrest its devolution. He invoked the past, but did not include the indigenous people who had kept the place holy for centuries. And while he glimpsed the perils of growth, he did not see all the way to today’s imperiled world.
John Szarkowski’s observation of Ansel Adams applies to Roosevelt as well. Adams “did not photograph the landscape as a matter of social service, but as a form of private worship. It was his own soul that he was trying to save.”
[Photo courtesy Library of Congress
Upon arriving at Yellowstone's northern entrance in 1903, Roosevelt insisted upon riding into the national park on horseback. Not long after he dedicated the Roosevelt Arch and in the same year he visited the Grand Canyon and Yosemite where he famously had his photograph taken with John Muir. Based on ignominious things they wrote and said, Roosevelt and Muir have been called out and condemned as racist. Photo courtesy Library of Congress]
Though a reflective worshipper, TR was also an energetic man of action, the sort of soul Gessner celebrates and wants to better emulate. One key difference: Roosevelt was a prodigious wielder of executive power, dating back to 1903. The government owned Florida’s Pelican Island, where the great birds were endangered by poachers. He inquired whether there was any legal reason why he could not declare it a federal bird reservation, and being told there was not, he said, “I so declare it.”
Westerners and wildlife owe much to Roosevelt’s exercise of that power on behalf of public lands. A hundred years later, however, we see the dark side of presidential fiat.
“Bully” is no longer a joyful adjective but an antidemocratic verb. The Department of Interior has backslid from protector of lands to granter of leases, serving a chief executive whose private appreciation of nature is limited to fairway grasses and water-hazard alligators.
Westerners and wildlife owe much to Roosevelt’s exercise of that power on behalf of public lands. A hundred years later, however, we see the dark side of presidential fiat. “Bully” is no longer a joyful adjective but an antidemocratic verb. The Department of Interior has backslid from protector of lands to granter of leases, serving a chief executive whose private appreciation of nature is limited to fairway grasses and water-hazard alligators.
Gessner admires Roosevelt, warts, contradictions, and all, but has no need to retread familiar ground. Great biographers have already captured the man; TR did it himself, with a prolific, wide-ranging output of books, articles, and speeches. Gessner helps us find the sweet spot beyond TR’s exploits, in the wild places that inspired his words. Early on he writes:
“I do know what the experience of seeing wild places does to me. It brings me to a wordless place. But then that wordlessness succumbs to words. In fact it has been my experience that places prompt sentences as if the place were asking you to celebrate and protect it.”
Gessner’s original plan was to visit TR territory and savor those places as they are now. Then, inspired, he would arrive at the Four Corners Area, the place of origin for Antiquities Act, where the recently created Bears Ears National Monument suggested a new model for preserving land. Bears Ears was the first such designation initiated and driven by indigenous people to protect land, wildlife, cultural assets, and spirit as a whole rather than as a semi-wild federal resource for tourists and jobs. He asks,
“Was it really possible to unite Roosevelt’s pugnacious spirit with that of the Native peoples who were driving this effort to preserve [the threatened lands of the Four Corners]?”
The road trip gains an upsetting complication at the start when President Donald Trump and his Interior Secretary Ryan “If you like Teddy Roosevelt, you’ll love me” Zinke eviscerate Bears Ears by 85 percent and halve neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The Bears Ears reduction is not about energy, Zinke often declared, but the downsizing process and the new maps don’t lie. Of course it’s about energy, which means it’s about money. (As I write this, the Trump administration just authorized its planned sale of drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.)
The battle remains against the same mercenary forces TR momentarily turned back. Only now technology and global finance magnify consumerism and corporate power. Canadian and Chilean mining enterprises threaten Bears Ears and the Boundary Waters. Japanese, Dutch, and Mexican investors are actively buying U.S. timber. All are aided and abetted by a president who swings his big executive order stick in the opposite direction.
As a nature writer and teacher, Gessner is a wonderful guide through all this. And he recognizes that some nature lovers must encounter these wild places through the accounts of others. He puts great faith in books and stories, even while lamenting the decline of deep reading as part of national discourse. Books are our elders, he says, and reading provides an immersive experience similar to what is experienced in nature. We leave our noisy selves and slip into a world we share with the rest of creation.
The challenge for most of us who lack TR’s power and drive is to believe our actions make a difference. In the age of unchecked powerplays, broadening extinction, and accelerating climate change, we must first defend our spirits from despair and surrender.
Gessner tells stories for a living and naturally sees stories as a vital act, just as Adams valued printmaking, and Abbey advocated monkey wrenching. Without executive power, we must go with our own strengths and pursue our own passions. As. Gessner points out with his examples of local heroes, most of our stages are small and particular. Our role is to play up our own characters in places that matter to us.
Gessner's hope, he often reminds us, is to discover "something close to the combination that TR embodied. We need thoughtful, well-read, articulate human beings, of all classes, ages, genders, and races, who care enough about other human beings to throw themselves out into the world and do battle with the waves of ignorance created by those who live without empathy.”
At the end, Gessner acknowledges his early efforts to become more political and pugnacious are rather tentative. But his larger point is that we must do our best with what we have to change what can, even if it’s saving one little island.
What is stopping me? I so declare it!
January 24, 2022
An amazing testament of what TR did to help preserve our land, while not brushing aside his many flaws. Even for someone who believes themself somewhat of an environmentalist, this book is eye-opening and helps one to realize it may be best to sacrifice one’s love for nature, for the good of that nature. I hope David Gessner is right in saying there is still hope. I, for one, plan to make some adjustments to my lifestyle. Read this book. You won’t regret it.
May 7, 2023
Teddy Roosevelt and our public land. Our parks and monuments are to be cherished, to be explored, and to be left alone. They are the last remaining artifacts that connect us with an ancient American world. The fight for Bears Ears and the natives is one we’ve seen before, politicians being ignorant and taking land away for mining, except this time the Navajo tribe will prevail. Informative read and one that makes me appreciate our diverse land in America all the more.
March 27, 2021
When Teddy Roosevelt first visited the Grand Canyon, he gave a speech and told those listening, "Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see."
"Leave it as it is" has been the conservationist's rallying cry. And Gessner explores its meaning today. His book is subtitled, "A Journey through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness," and I assumed this would be purely a biography of TR's conservationist history. But Gessner's writing and narrative is as peripatetic as his travels around the country. And just as rich. While much of Leave It As It Is is a history of TR in the wilderness, just as much of it is a deep dive into the controversy around the Bears Ears National Monument and what that means for conservation. More pointedly, it's about how and why Donald Trump and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke lopsidedly rescinded the monument's boundaries.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 is something Gessner investigates, and I think it's something more Americans should understand. Created to allow Presidents to protect lands, and therefore artifacts and history, it sailed through Congress almost undetected. And TR immediately began using it to set aside national monuments and preserves across the country in a way that, if done by a President today, would cause cries of Federal overreach and abuse of power. Beginning with Devils Tower, the list grew to include Muir Woods, Lewis and Clark Caverns, and Grand Canyon and Pinnacles before they became national parks. So much of what we have as undisturbed parks and monuments today are because of TR's vision and drive.
But conservation is messy, and Gessner points out why. Federally protecting lands sounds great. But that has also removed Native Americans - who are often primary users of the land - from the picture. It can keep out mining and other land-raping corporate interests. But it can also put unknown, little-visited areas on the bucket lists of outdoor enthusiasts and spike tourism. (Anyone who visited Moab and Zion Canyon with me in high school, and has seen what's become of those places today know what a blight tourism can be to beautiful places.)
I first discovered Gessner when Outside magazine reviewed his book All the Wild that Remains. Learning there was a book about both Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey, I felt I'd found a kindred spirit. Bringing TR into the picture, I'll probably pick up anything Gessner writes. It's not easy reading. But it is fascinating thinking.
READ IT IF: You love the outdoors, TR, national parks, national monuments, public lands, the environment, and have an open mind.
"Leave it as it is" has been the conservationist's rallying cry. And Gessner explores its meaning today. His book is subtitled, "A Journey through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness," and I assumed this would be purely a biography of TR's conservationist history. But Gessner's writing and narrative is as peripatetic as his travels around the country. And just as rich. While much of Leave It As It Is is a history of TR in the wilderness, just as much of it is a deep dive into the controversy around the Bears Ears National Monument and what that means for conservation. More pointedly, it's about how and why Donald Trump and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke lopsidedly rescinded the monument's boundaries.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 is something Gessner investigates, and I think it's something more Americans should understand. Created to allow Presidents to protect lands, and therefore artifacts and history, it sailed through Congress almost undetected. And TR immediately began using it to set aside national monuments and preserves across the country in a way that, if done by a President today, would cause cries of Federal overreach and abuse of power. Beginning with Devils Tower, the list grew to include Muir Woods, Lewis and Clark Caverns, and Grand Canyon and Pinnacles before they became national parks. So much of what we have as undisturbed parks and monuments today are because of TR's vision and drive.
But conservation is messy, and Gessner points out why. Federally protecting lands sounds great. But that has also removed Native Americans - who are often primary users of the land - from the picture. It can keep out mining and other land-raping corporate interests. But it can also put unknown, little-visited areas on the bucket lists of outdoor enthusiasts and spike tourism. (Anyone who visited Moab and Zion Canyon with me in high school, and has seen what's become of those places today know what a blight tourism can be to beautiful places.)
I first discovered Gessner when Outside magazine reviewed his book All the Wild that Remains. Learning there was a book about both Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey, I felt I'd found a kindred spirit. Bringing TR into the picture, I'll probably pick up anything Gessner writes. It's not easy reading. But it is fascinating thinking.
READ IT IF: You love the outdoors, TR, national parks, national monuments, public lands, the environment, and have an open mind.
August 27, 2020
Audiobook narrated by Fred Sanders and borrowed from MidYork Library System's Libby.
A somewhat meandering but interesting look at TR's fascination with the outdoors and conservation with meaningful pauses to consider public lands.
A somewhat meandering but interesting look at TR's fascination with the outdoors and conservation with meaningful pauses to consider public lands.
July 26, 2021
I got frustrated with this book. As I expected it to describe all the places that Teddy Roosevelt tried to preserve but this seems more like an autobiography. Definitely wasn't even able to finish this book
November 28, 2021
I like everything that the writer says more than the book itself- which I still liked.
Between all the road tripping and environmentalism and history and essays and biographical analysis, I never quite found a groove but the honesty and perspective coming out of the page was evident, and I want to celebrate people in the world like this so much.
My favorite parts were learning about the battles over Bears Ears National Park and as an extension of that, what a national park might strive to be and how that might differ from what we think humans need from it versus animals, the land, local residents, etc. There was some really good stuff on the latter early.
Between all the road tripping and environmentalism and history and essays and biographical analysis, I never quite found a groove but the honesty and perspective coming out of the page was evident, and I want to celebrate people in the world like this so much.
My favorite parts were learning about the battles over Bears Ears National Park and as an extension of that, what a national park might strive to be and how that might differ from what we think humans need from it versus animals, the land, local residents, etc. There was some really good stuff on the latter early.
September 25, 2020
Saving America's land in Roosevelt's time and today seems more complex and political than it needs to be.
October 15, 2020
Learnt a lot about the president that founded the National Parks and forrest that now i threaten by the nazi's in the White House.
June 1, 2023
Really interesting book that delves into the work of Teddy Roosevelt as well as the current state of our nation's wild spaces. This book teaches a lot about the current controversy and fight for protecting Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears, and more.
March 11, 2021
This book is part memoir, part love letter to Theodore Roosevelt, part hate letter to Donald Trump, part commentary on the current state of conservation in the United States. It tries to do all of these things, but doesn't quite succeed in any of them. I suppose I learned some things about Roosevelt's conservation efforts, which were more numerous than I had realized, but to get there, I had to slog through a drug trip with the author's nephew and commentary from various politicians and environmentalists both of the past and present.
Edit: I'm currently reading the book Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, and in the first chapter, Theodore Roosevelt is touched upon in a very different light. In some ways, I feel like I learned more about him from Medoicre than I did in this book. (And it also works as a hate letter to Donald Trump.)
Edit: I'm currently reading the book Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, and in the first chapter, Theodore Roosevelt is touched upon in a very different light. In some ways, I feel like I learned more about him from Medoicre than I did in this book. (And it also works as a hate letter to Donald Trump.)
July 2, 2022
This book is a compelling blend of history, personal narrative, and in-depth exploration of the west's natural landscapes. Gessner provides the right amount of context to keep folks like me (easily distracted!) engaged as he examines the policy dynamics that affect the people and the places in the American west.
January 7, 2021
Important reading for anyone who wants to live in the West (or does so currently). As we talk about making certain wilderness areas "sacrificial" due to the massive increase in people coming to see wilderness, let's talk about what the reasons are for preserving islands of wilderness are. This book covers a lot of subtleties that are worth understanding while sharing bits about Teddy Roosevelt throughout.
November 1, 2022
“Leave It As It Is” by David Gessner is an outstanding book about Theodore Roosevelt and his passion for nature and conservation. Gessner documents his travels through the Southwest following TR’s (Roosevelt) trail.
Teddy Roosevelt was man full of energy, ideas, ambitions, passions and contradictions. Taken alone, the story of TR is a full and robust story. But Gessner has wound the story of TR around his dedication to the national parks and monuments and laid bare so many layers of what is involved in the history of the parks/monuments and the political battles that still go on today.
In the very beginning, Gessner says “Over the previous few years I had been relearning an old lesson: no matter how often public lands are ‘saved’, they are never really safe”. This is the basic premise of the book. Going back to manifest destiny, when Americans pushed Westward to spread Capitalism and Democracy, forcing Indigenous people off their land, the book covers what really happened during this time. From there, Gessner takes us through the 1906 Antiquities Act and brings us to the current day where there are battles that continue to happen over public lands. Each side has its own story. The Environmentalists want to preserve the natural areas. The Tribal Councils want to preserve the history that resides in those areas. The Ranchers want to continue to lease land from the government and have multitudes of cows graze the land. Some politicians want to scale back the parks/monuments to allow further mining.
The book definitely has political aspects to it. It also gets a bit preachy at times. Although it is clear where Gessner stands, he does a good job of laying out the different sides of the argument. The question that remains is how to get all sides together to work out an acceptable plan to save the environment, allow for migration of animals, protect the artifacts and historical tribal areas, and allow business to prosper. Is it even possible or will it continue to change every time there is a new party in the White House?
Honestly, some of the things that were outlined in this book were jaw-dropping to me. Look at the history of Bears Ears. Obama designated it a National Monument, Trump cut it back by 85% and Biden is trying to restore it to its original boundaries that Obama documented. Crazy stuff.
The book didn’t leave me feeling hopeful, but it did leave me informed. Anyone who is concerned about climate change and continuing to try and atone for what happened to the Indigenous people should read this book.
Teddy Roosevelt was man full of energy, ideas, ambitions, passions and contradictions. Taken alone, the story of TR is a full and robust story. But Gessner has wound the story of TR around his dedication to the national parks and monuments and laid bare so many layers of what is involved in the history of the parks/monuments and the political battles that still go on today.
In the very beginning, Gessner says “Over the previous few years I had been relearning an old lesson: no matter how often public lands are ‘saved’, they are never really safe”. This is the basic premise of the book. Going back to manifest destiny, when Americans pushed Westward to spread Capitalism and Democracy, forcing Indigenous people off their land, the book covers what really happened during this time. From there, Gessner takes us through the 1906 Antiquities Act and brings us to the current day where there are battles that continue to happen over public lands. Each side has its own story. The Environmentalists want to preserve the natural areas. The Tribal Councils want to preserve the history that resides in those areas. The Ranchers want to continue to lease land from the government and have multitudes of cows graze the land. Some politicians want to scale back the parks/monuments to allow further mining.
The book definitely has political aspects to it. It also gets a bit preachy at times. Although it is clear where Gessner stands, he does a good job of laying out the different sides of the argument. The question that remains is how to get all sides together to work out an acceptable plan to save the environment, allow for migration of animals, protect the artifacts and historical tribal areas, and allow business to prosper. Is it even possible or will it continue to change every time there is a new party in the White House?
Honestly, some of the things that were outlined in this book were jaw-dropping to me. Look at the history of Bears Ears. Obama designated it a National Monument, Trump cut it back by 85% and Biden is trying to restore it to its original boundaries that Obama documented. Crazy stuff.
The book didn’t leave me feeling hopeful, but it did leave me informed. Anyone who is concerned about climate change and continuing to try and atone for what happened to the Indigenous people should read this book.
October 27, 2020
Book 23 for 2020: Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt's American Wilderness by David Gessner
The title of this book comes from a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt when viewing the Grand Canyon on DATE. "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it (May 6, 1903). TR would go on to declare the Grand Canyon as a National Monument.
TR would ultimately preserve 230 million acres of land as national forests, national wildlife refuges, national parks, and national monuments. Gessner examines this legacy by visiting many of these lands in a combination of travel log, biography, and examination of public lands issues. This field/road trip is the "hook" for examining Roosevelt's place in history and public lands issues, especially the Trump's reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
Gessner indicates this legacy of public land preservation needs to evolve and that Bears Ears was a type of this evolution. He writes, ""If one considers the misdeeds of the man who is currently President and rank them in a tournament of malfeasance, few would give the reduction of Bears Ears a top seed. With children being separated from their parents, coercion of foreign governments for personal gain, and seeming support for white supremacist groups, and all the rest of the coarseness that goes with the daily Trump show, it might not seem that saving some arid land in Utah should get people too excited. But I would contend that this is because most of us for not understand that Bears Ears is not just about the potential destruction of the lands, but about the destruction of an ideal. Or rather, the destruction of a new confluence of ideals". (p. 205-206). This confluence is "...a flowing together of Native respect for the land with the ideals, however sometimes flawed in practice, that created the national parks and national monuments, and preserved other public lands (p. 205-206)."
Bears Ears represented a new merging of TR's legacy of preservation combined with a movement that honors the original inhabitants of the lands. I can only hope that a new Administration honors this promise to the Natives and continues to preserve the national landscape.
The title of this book comes from a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt when viewing the Grand Canyon on DATE. "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it (May 6, 1903). TR would go on to declare the Grand Canyon as a National Monument.
TR would ultimately preserve 230 million acres of land as national forests, national wildlife refuges, national parks, and national monuments. Gessner examines this legacy by visiting many of these lands in a combination of travel log, biography, and examination of public lands issues. This field/road trip is the "hook" for examining Roosevelt's place in history and public lands issues, especially the Trump's reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
Gessner indicates this legacy of public land preservation needs to evolve and that Bears Ears was a type of this evolution. He writes, ""If one considers the misdeeds of the man who is currently President and rank them in a tournament of malfeasance, few would give the reduction of Bears Ears a top seed. With children being separated from their parents, coercion of foreign governments for personal gain, and seeming support for white supremacist groups, and all the rest of the coarseness that goes with the daily Trump show, it might not seem that saving some arid land in Utah should get people too excited. But I would contend that this is because most of us for not understand that Bears Ears is not just about the potential destruction of the lands, but about the destruction of an ideal. Or rather, the destruction of a new confluence of ideals". (p. 205-206). This confluence is "...a flowing together of Native respect for the land with the ideals, however sometimes flawed in practice, that created the national parks and national monuments, and preserved other public lands (p. 205-206)."
Bears Ears represented a new merging of TR's legacy of preservation combined with a movement that honors the original inhabitants of the lands. I can only hope that a new Administration honors this promise to the Natives and continues to preserve the national landscape.
March 5, 2022
I am a big fan of Gessner’s nature writing (see: A Wild Rank Place), but this enlistment of biographical details of Teddy Roosevelt’s life to strike a blow for the environment (and in particular for assailing Trump’s reversal of the designation of Bear’s Ears —among other places — as a national monument) didn’t quite work for me. While extremely sympathetic to the "Leave It As It Is" ethos, I was unpersuaded by Gessner’s argument in the sense that he never seriously seemed to have engaged with those who supported Trump’s un-designation (despite having been told there were Navajos who sympathized with Trump’s action). There is a single, recorded conversation with an outgoing Republican county commissioner, but ultimately Gessner spends more time on the whiny, victimized tone of the commissioner and less on substance. Also, it felt as if this book was really a magazine article in the sense that the repetition of themes (especially the acknowledgment that TR was not a complete progressive and some of his attitudes downright regressive, and that we should nonetheless embrace the good parts) suggested a fluffing up of the content to make it book-length.
What did I enjoy? The nature writing (so much that I was sad when he resorted to quoting other writers like Stegner rather than feature his own work). Gessner’s personal experiences, including with his travel companion Noah (though it would have been nice to get to know Noah better; he came off as a bit of a cypher). The fervency of Gessner’s desire to do something active to defend the environment, especially in the face of an administration seemingly determined to ignore its peril. The data on how destructive cows are for the environment and the sweetheart leasing terms ranchers and extractive industries get from the federal government, all the while proclaiming their independence and ignoring their dependence on hand-outs.
All in all, a mixed bag.
April 24, 2022
This is a great book. I found his interpretation of Teddy Roosevelt’s life inspiring. Roosevelt had many flaws: he loved killing things, his enthusiasm for American expansion and military adventures, and his attitude toward and treatment of Native Americans. But he also did quite a bit of good when it comes to conservation: he declared 230,000,000 acres of American land off-limits to industry and development.
TR was quite progressive, not only for his time, but he would be considered progressive now – which speaks to how little progress we have made. This section from the book is about TR’s platform in the 1912 election (which he lost):
“The progressive platform was stunning in its modernity: a social insurance system for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled; strict campaign finance restrictions; women’s suffrage; an eight-hour workday; a minimum wage for women; an inheritance tax; worker’s compensation for injuries in the workplace; and a vow to ‘destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.’”
Gessner sees hope, though I am not sure it is warranted. It is refreshing to read.
“We are changing. The culture is changing. Or rather the cultures. It is my dream that, despite recent evidence and recent politics, we will change into something more creative, more open, more fluid; something larger, more magnanimous, more inclusive, and ultimately more exciting.”
I hope he’s right, but it will take quite a bit to change our culture of greed and our obsession with growth. We can’t legislate it – that won’t work. But I think we need to change our culture somehow before we destroy each other and all that we have created that is good.
TR was quite progressive, not only for his time, but he would be considered progressive now – which speaks to how little progress we have made. This section from the book is about TR’s platform in the 1912 election (which he lost):
“The progressive platform was stunning in its modernity: a social insurance system for the elderly, unemployed, and disabled; strict campaign finance restrictions; women’s suffrage; an eight-hour workday; a minimum wage for women; an inheritance tax; worker’s compensation for injuries in the workplace; and a vow to ‘destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.’”
Gessner sees hope, though I am not sure it is warranted. It is refreshing to read.
“We are changing. The culture is changing. Or rather the cultures. It is my dream that, despite recent evidence and recent politics, we will change into something more creative, more open, more fluid; something larger, more magnanimous, more inclusive, and ultimately more exciting.”
I hope he’s right, but it will take quite a bit to change our culture of greed and our obsession with growth. We can’t legislate it – that won’t work. But I think we need to change our culture somehow before we destroy each other and all that we have created that is good.
March 27, 2021
David Gessner has become one of the authors who I will now read anything he writes. This is the third book of his that I have read thus far. His western environmentalism journeys resonate with one of my favorite authors, Timothy Egan, in his books, “The Big Burn” and “Lasso The Wind, Away to The New West. Many of Gessner’s stories paralleled Egan’s and further validated humanity’s environmental mistakes in the West.
We also share interests in the writings of Wallace Stegner, the history of Teddy Roosevelt, a love for ultimate frisbee (see "Ultimate Glory"), and are seemingly aligned enviropolitically.
I have read a ton about Teddy Roosevelt (Morris, McCullough, Kearns Goodwin, Egan.......) and while grateful for so many of his societal improvements, Gessner and I share a wincing inquistiveness for some of his head scratching flaws as well. The jingoist fighting for the common man, the naturalist who killed voraciously, and a dose of the racial misgivings infecting even the best intended of those times. Thanks for preserving land and busting trusts, but we would not have hung out together:)
“Leave it as it is,” is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt during a speech he made the first time he saw the Grand Canyon and has become somewhat of a rallying cry for conservationists. Gessner relates his travels to the Dakota badlands; Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Bears Ears, Utah while relaying Roosevelt’s impact on preserving each and assessing where we stand today. Written during the dark cloud of the Trump era, I appreciate and feel Gessner's, appropriately profane venting.
A great book
We also share interests in the writings of Wallace Stegner, the history of Teddy Roosevelt, a love for ultimate frisbee (see "Ultimate Glory"), and are seemingly aligned enviropolitically.
I have read a ton about Teddy Roosevelt (Morris, McCullough, Kearns Goodwin, Egan.......) and while grateful for so many of his societal improvements, Gessner and I share a wincing inquistiveness for some of his head scratching flaws as well. The jingoist fighting for the common man, the naturalist who killed voraciously, and a dose of the racial misgivings infecting even the best intended of those times. Thanks for preserving land and busting trusts, but we would not have hung out together:)
“Leave it as it is,” is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt during a speech he made the first time he saw the Grand Canyon and has become somewhat of a rallying cry for conservationists. Gessner relates his travels to the Dakota badlands; Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and Bears Ears, Utah while relaying Roosevelt’s impact on preserving each and assessing where we stand today. Written during the dark cloud of the Trump era, I appreciate and feel Gessner's, appropriately profane venting.
A great book
August 29, 2021
I read this book in advance of a trip to North Dakota and a stay at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. While Gessner covers the basic history of TR, this is a reflection on today's wild lands and a reaction to TR-ump's efforts to roll back Clinton- and Obama-established public lands--in particular Bear's Ears National Monument.
The book ranges from history to travelogue and around to op-ed. The titular quote, "Leave it as it is," uttered by TR at the dedication of Grand Canyon National Monument. Gessner traces the evolution of this meaning--coined at the height of industrialization in America, but relevant to today when re-wilding of public lands grows more and more urgent.
Along the way, Gessner endorses the ideal of a protected migration corridor along the spine of the Rockies which would allow elk and antelope, as well as grizzlies and mountain lions, to expand their range and adapt to the impact of climate change. (One thing I did after finishing the book was mail a donation to the American Prairie Preserve, which is doing just this in Montana.)
Gessner writes several chapters about Bears' Ears National Monument, an area just outside the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners region which holds countless sites of priceless human artifacts. The monument was proposed by a group of native American tribes, and was seen as a huge step forward for the native community at the time of its ratification in the waning days of the Obama presidency. Gessner describes a hike through the monument, and recounts the efforts of stakeholders to preserve the monument, even as the Trump Administration returned thousands of acres for exploitation by ranching and extractive industries.
The book ranges from history to travelogue and around to op-ed. The titular quote, "Leave it as it is," uttered by TR at the dedication of Grand Canyon National Monument. Gessner traces the evolution of this meaning--coined at the height of industrialization in America, but relevant to today when re-wilding of public lands grows more and more urgent.
Along the way, Gessner endorses the ideal of a protected migration corridor along the spine of the Rockies which would allow elk and antelope, as well as grizzlies and mountain lions, to expand their range and adapt to the impact of climate change. (One thing I did after finishing the book was mail a donation to the American Prairie Preserve, which is doing just this in Montana.)
Gessner writes several chapters about Bears' Ears National Monument, an area just outside the Navajo Reservation in the Four Corners region which holds countless sites of priceless human artifacts. The monument was proposed by a group of native American tribes, and was seen as a huge step forward for the native community at the time of its ratification in the waning days of the Obama presidency. Gessner describes a hike through the monument, and recounts the efforts of stakeholders to preserve the monument, even as the Trump Administration returned thousands of acres for exploitation by ranching and extractive industries.
July 23, 2025
Gessner insists this book is not a Teddy Roosevelt biography, and it isn't, but a good chunk of it sure wants to be. Here, Gessner juxtaposes his own Westward vacation/research trip against key moments in TR's life. Constantly, he asks: what would Teddy do?
The premise is sound enough, but unfortunately I felt many passages were disjointed and lacked flow. Further, Gessner covers TR's political and moral failures, yet spends much of the book kissing the dead president's ass. This is especially rich because he criticizes biographers for lackluster coverage of TR's flaws.
Precisely one page is spent dissecting Roosevelt's abhorrent views towards Indigenous Americans. Without overextending the book's scope, I think Gessner missed an opportunity to analyze the intersectionality (or lack thereof) between TR's view on Native Americans and his conservationist ideas.
The best parts of the book are the later chapters where Gessner visits Bears Ears to interview relevant actors and unpack the contemporary controversies surrounding its status as a National Landmark under the Antiquities Act. Honestly, I wish he dropped all the TR business entirely and wrote a focused piece about Bears Ears instead. I think that book would've been stronger.
Overall, Gessner is a clear communicator who undeniably has his finger on the pulse of key American environmental issues, however, this book falls flat. I'll check out some of his other work.
The premise is sound enough, but unfortunately I felt many passages were disjointed and lacked flow. Further, Gessner covers TR's political and moral failures, yet spends much of the book kissing the dead president's ass. This is especially rich because he criticizes biographers for lackluster coverage of TR's flaws.
Precisely one page is spent dissecting Roosevelt's abhorrent views towards Indigenous Americans. Without overextending the book's scope, I think Gessner missed an opportunity to analyze the intersectionality (or lack thereof) between TR's view on Native Americans and his conservationist ideas.
The best parts of the book are the later chapters where Gessner visits Bears Ears to interview relevant actors and unpack the contemporary controversies surrounding its status as a National Landmark under the Antiquities Act. Honestly, I wish he dropped all the TR business entirely and wrote a focused piece about Bears Ears instead. I think that book would've been stronger.
Overall, Gessner is a clear communicator who undeniably has his finger on the pulse of key American environmental issues, however, this book falls flat. I'll check out some of his other work.
September 27, 2020
An interesting presentation of several journeys. A journey through the life of Theodore Roosevelt, a summer vacation exploring the Western United States and a journey through environmental discovery all wrapped together. I am not sure that any of these were wholly successful in the telling as they all suffered from being interspersed together in this book. While the writing was okay it was wasn't engrossing and the long chapters made it a bit tiring to get through. The being said the author presents an interesting and timely thesis about the preservation of public lands in the Western United States and raises a mix or perspectives. While public land in the United States is undoubtedly a good idea over time the plan and understanding of how to manage that land evolves and ideas that were unthinkable only a few year ago are now in fashion. This book ultimately is about stoking the public discourse on how best to manage our public lands for our current benefit and also for the benefit of the future public. While it may seem simple it is not and different constituencies have very differing ideas about how best to do this. There is an important public discourse that is going on and needs to be stoked in a mindful and thoughtful manner to manage this amazing legacy now and for the future. Books like this help to encourage that discourse and thought.
March 16, 2025
Leave it as it is
Author: David Gessner
Save yourselves! The title and description are very misleading. I was looking forward to learning more about two of my favorite subjects, Theodore Roosevelt and the National Parks.
What I got instead was the author’s political manifesto with occasional references (admittedly informed) about President Roosevelt and the parks.
Gessner drops names throughout the narrative about his close friends on Capitol Hill, all prominent radical Democrats. It is a good thing he used a professional to read the book for audible, as one can imagine the obligatory sneer anytime he mentions President Trump, Ryan Zenke, any other Republican or when he explains the most devastating event for America was when the “Supreme Court decided Bush would be president rather than Al Gore.”
Part of his story is taking his nephew on a cross country trip, visiting national parks. When they reach the beach in California, Gessner giddily explains how he celebrated by introducing his nephew to drugs.
The author avows deep admiration for TR, yet refers to cowboys as “the cowboy myth.” Some of his negative analysis of TR is accurate and fair; some is not.
If you want to read ad nauseum about the author’s political views and Bears Ears National Monument, this is the book for you.
If you are interested in history of TR and the Parks, save your time.
Author: David Gessner
Save yourselves! The title and description are very misleading. I was looking forward to learning more about two of my favorite subjects, Theodore Roosevelt and the National Parks.
What I got instead was the author’s political manifesto with occasional references (admittedly informed) about President Roosevelt and the parks.
Gessner drops names throughout the narrative about his close friends on Capitol Hill, all prominent radical Democrats. It is a good thing he used a professional to read the book for audible, as one can imagine the obligatory sneer anytime he mentions President Trump, Ryan Zenke, any other Republican or when he explains the most devastating event for America was when the “Supreme Court decided Bush would be president rather than Al Gore.”
Part of his story is taking his nephew on a cross country trip, visiting national parks. When they reach the beach in California, Gessner giddily explains how he celebrated by introducing his nephew to drugs.
The author avows deep admiration for TR, yet refers to cowboys as “the cowboy myth.” Some of his negative analysis of TR is accurate and fair; some is not.
If you want to read ad nauseum about the author’s political views and Bears Ears National Monument, this is the book for you.
If you are interested in history of TR and the Parks, save your time.
April 5, 2021
Gessner magically blends past and present with his personal memoir and travelogue alongside his explorative study of Theodore Roosevelt and western environmental history as he winds through the western states. Through research, conversations, and his travels through places where Roosevelt left his legacy, he gives us a fresh character study of a well-known and complicated American hero. While highlighting his accomplishments, Gessner does not shy away from his problematic actions and beliefs nor defend him as a man of his time. It will be a compelling and inspiring read for those who need a gentle nudge or encouragement to continue advocating for what needs protection. His goals are relatable as he uses this journey to examine his own purpose and role in protecting the non-human world and re-claiming it for those who were here first. It is a timely tale about advocating for this glorious world we inhabit and bringing awareness to the current issues of the west.
February 22, 2021
Gessner has come West again and this time with the intent to be an inspiring and effective conservationist. His was a brilliant idea to focus on Teddy Roosevelt as an example of getting things done in conservation. Somehow Gessner, a guy from the east coast, has a handle on our issues in Utah as well or better than anyone here. It is vaguely frustrating. Gessner's acknowledgment of people I know who were involved in the work, like Kristen Johanna Allen, the publisher at Torrey House Press, THP author Steven Trimble, and THP board member Regina Whiteskunk Lopez, makes me think I am at least associated with getting things done via my board work with Torrey House Press and Western Watersheds Project.
THP is going to publish Gessner's upcoming work, Quiet Desperation, Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crises. It is my privilege to read the galley next.
THP is going to publish Gessner's upcoming work, Quiet Desperation, Savage Delight: Sheltering with Thoreau in the Age of Crises. It is my privilege to read the galley next.
March 17, 2022
If you worship TR, read this book. If you loathe TR, read this book. This well- researched book does not attempt to be a true biography, and indeed references many sources for those that wish to delve further. Rather, it employs the concept that “the special ways in which biography - permitting as it does the comparison between life and life, between one person‘s total experience and our own can assist us by supporting, encouraging, perhaps clarifying or the very least extended the experience of living.” (Walter Jackson Bate). Gessner addresses the contradictory nature of TR, delving both into his vision of conservation and foibles of white supremacy. Further, he updates the debate of the purpose of America’s public lands, the Native peoples efforts and the serious threats of political machinations and climate change. And he makes a call to renew our pledge to Leave it as it is.
February 7, 2021
Gessner does an excellent job of weaving the history of Teddy Roosevelt with the history of public lands in the United States - both the good and the bad. He presents TR’s faults as well as his accomplishments and doesn’t try to make excuses for them - let’s us sit with those faults and reflect on how the manifest destiny of the country impacted the native people who lived here. He takes a deep dive into Bears Ears and shows how much time and effort went into the fight to protect it. Finally, by wrestling with his own struggles with how to act in the fight against climate change, he challenges each of us to do the same.
The first two chapters moved slowly, but I’m glad I stuck with it and greatly enjoyed and found value in the rest of the book.
The first two chapters moved slowly, but I’m glad I stuck with it and greatly enjoyed and found value in the rest of the book.
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