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Book Review
Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves,
and the Hidden History of American Conservation. By Karl Jacoby
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. xix + 305 pp. Illustrations,
maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95, cloth; $26.95, paper.)
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Feasting on nature channels and weaned on Disney movies about wildlife, the American public often reacts (or overreacts) simplistically to the interactions of humans and animals throughout history. This is readily evident in perceptions about hunting and game laws, and the violation of those laws, or poaching. Distortions abound, so that even environmental historians who should know better assert that such ecological luminaries as Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold either did not hunt or gave up hunting. For modern Americans, the moral lines about hunting and poaching seem clearly drawn and brook no ambiguity. In truth, the matter has always been morally complicated. |
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