Firefighting history with T.R. and the “Big Burn”
The Big Burn : Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America. By Timothy Egan.
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 324 p.
Recommendation by:
Carleen Jackson, Director, Heritage Center, Olympia, WA.
I recommend this wonderful history of a huge fire that destroyed much of the newly designated National Forest land in 1910. Equally fascinating is the story of how the US Forest Service got its beginnings through the work of Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. Although most of the fire destroyed lands in Idaho and Montana, Washington State also figures prominently in the story.
The best thing about the book is that it reads almost like a novel, although it is historically correct. Egan tells the story through the true-life characters: Familiar names such as Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft. He also includes the lesser-known people: railroad tycoons, brothel and tavern keepers, newly minted forest rangers, and men and women who fought the fire. This fire set the precedent for the long-standing policy of the Forest Service to aggressively fight fires, rather than manage them as the Native Americans did.
Timothy Egan is also the author of The Worst Hard Times about the dustbowl in the Midwest, and The Good Rain about his travels around Washington State.
ISBN-13: 978-0618968411
Available at the Washington State Library, NW 973.911 EGAN 2009.
Also available in talking book and eBook editions.
Not available as a Braille edition.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
January 15th, 2012 at 9:49 pm
I had the pleasure of reading The Big Burn recently and your glowing review is absolutely spot on. It is an easy read but nonetheless very educational and provides great insight into how the US Forest Service got its start. Thanks to Carleen Jackson for the suggestion!
January 13th, 2013 at 5:38 am
I recently finished this book and bought it after reading your recommendation here.
I really enjoyed it as I prefer factual books and its obvious Timothy Egan has done a huge amount of research on the subject, but what really makes it stand out for me is hearing about the personal stories of the people involved.