| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131.3

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| Book Reviews | The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Reviews

Green Republican: John Saylor and the Preservation of America's Wilderness. By Thomas G. Smith. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. x, 404 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $40.)
We live in politically divisive times: blue states, red states, and very little in between (or so it might seem). In many circles, wedge issues such as the environment provide easy categorization, which is most often attributed to Democratic perspectives and implicated as exclusively anti-business and development. Historian Thomas G. Smith's Green Republican provides readers with dramatic evidence that this categorization is a false one.	1
Hailing from Johnstown, John Saylor came of age during the early days of "modern environmentalism," the 1960s–70s era when the political landscape was altered to address the concerns of scientists and interested citizens. During this era, revolutionary legislation expressed a basic change in the public's expectations: the environment was important to everyone and only the federal government had the regulative authority to act on its behalf. In Smith's fine account, we learn that a surprising figure loomed behind most of these political achievements: Saylor, the Republican representative from rural Pennsylvania.	2
Inspired by Republican Theodore Roosevelt, Saylor maintained a commitment to the conservation of natural resources that was not afraid to favor wholesale preservation of specific areas. "Saylor believed that once national parks and monuments had been established, they became sacrosanct." His efforts on behalf of the environment also helped him to emphasize earth stewardship with a strong religious base. "Protecting natural splendors," Smith writes, Saylor believed, "would bring present and future generations closer to the Creator" (p. 2). Despite a national reputation as an activist on national environmental issues, though, he remained committed to his region's needs.	. . .

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