The Big Burn

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
by Timothy Egan [Biography Roosevelt]

This is the story of the growth of the Forest Service told against the backdrop of the forest fire of 1910. This fire is the largest forest fire in American History. In two days in August it burned 3,000,000 acres in Washington, Idaho and Montana. At the time of the fire the Forest Service was in its infancy struggling to survive. President Teddy Roosevelt created the Forest Service in 1905 to manage the forest reserves. When Roosevelt left the White House the Forest Service lost its champion. Congress and the capitalists of the gilded age wanted the reserves moved from government control and placed in private hands for development. In order to effect the move Congress under funded the Forest Service forcing the rangers to pay for basic supplies out of their own pockets. The lack of support made it more difficult for the rangers to fight this fire, but they persevered. This book-on-CD is the story of the individual rangers and private citizens who risked life and limb to save themselves, the residents and the forest. -- recommended by Donna G. - Virtual Services Department

[Also available in downloadable and book-on-cd formats.]

[ official The Big Burn web site ] | [ official Timothy Egan blog ]

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.