Fox, Stephen R.

Stephen R. Fox takes a wide angle lens approach to American history in the twentieth century with an emphasis on the years 1950 to 1997 by identifying the trends, movements, and undercurrents found in this period among five topics: politics, technology, religion, race, and sex. Fox notes the turn against the strong executive that was in vogue until the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, and he rails against the conservatism and policies of President Ronald Reagan. Fox highlights the rise of the environmental movement, and he says that changes in technology are eroding community and increasing social isolation. Fox identifies five trends in religious practice and notes the resilience of religious belief in American society.

Fox’s look at race focuses on the changes in leadership among African-Americans from the days of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, and he notes how the views and attitudes of African-Americans are often markedly different from their contemporary leaders. Fox concludes his survey with a look at the evolution of sexual mores away from Victorian standards to a more permissive stance on issues such as premarital sex.

Three photographs, including one of Fox, and all from the Theodore Roosevelt Association luncheon at Harvard’s Pusey Library, supplement the text.

Stephen R. Fox explores the divide in the American conservation movement between camps headed by followers of John Muir and those of Gifford Pinchot. He talks about the popularity of each and of the scholarship that has been produced about each of them. Fox argues that Pinchot “is best understood not as a conservationist but as a politician,” and he examines Pinchot’s autobiography in some detail to support this assertion. Fox argues that Pinchot had presidential aspirations and that he demonstrated little interest in practical forestry matters in his later years, but he also contends that Pinchot remains an important figure in the history of the American conservation movement.

A photograph of Roosevelt and Pinchot appears in the article as does a listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. A notice that this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal is dedicated to Jessica Kraft appears on the last page of the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

In this chapter excerpt from his book John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement, Stephen Fox examines efforts to expand Yosemite National Park, the battle between preservationists and conservationists over the use of forests, and provides portraits of John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, John Burroughs, and Theodore Roosevelt. He looks at the work undertaken by the conservation movement to preserve Niagara Falls, the redwood forests of California, and Mount Desert Island in Maine. Fox concludes the chapter with a look at the battle over the city of San Francisco’s desire to build a dam at the southern end of Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite National Park. In addition to looking at the life and work of Muir, the chapter provides information on many lesser known figures in the turn of the twentieth-century conservation movement.

A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is found on the second page of the excerpt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal