Reviews for A requiem for the renascence

The average rating for A requiem for the renascence based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-04-06 00:00:00 Michel Muller This book, oddly enough, is quite topical, focusing as it does on the lives and writings of De Voto and Stegner as they developed into serious environmentalists. The attention to the kind of "land grabs" that seem likely to be facilitated by the Trump Administration, mining, logging, oil, captured my interest and reminded me that I have never visited the storied West or the parks and Federal lands that are part of my heritage as a US citizen. Having read earlier about the treatment of wolves and coyotes and the human insistence that "this land is our land" and having witnessed the same in a relatively small island population in which house pets shabbily cared for are an excuse for killing off wildlife, I found the struggles of these two men to try, through writing, lobbying, and other activities, to at least match if not overcome the work of exploitative corporate interests admirable. Having read, years back, De Voto's histories and having had a friend study with Stegner at Stanford, I had more than a passing interest in the book which has been sitting in a bookcase next to my bed for years. The style was workman-like, but the writing, like those of the subjects, was built on solid research. Some repetition was inevitable as De Voto and Stegner were close friends, came from the same area (Mormon country), and focused on similar concerns. Reading the volume was a positive experience, one that might well lead to activism.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-27 00:00:00 Christopher Chedzey A cojoined biography of two superb writers and friends, each with one foot in New England and one in the West. Obliquely tells the sad tale of the decline of the American West, and how deVeto and Stegner fought to divert this sad trajectory (Spoiler alert: they lost.)