Crimes Against Nature: Squatters Poachers Thieves and the Hidden History of American Conservation

About this book

Crimes against Nature reveals the hidden history behind three of the nations first parklands: the Adirondacks Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Focusing on conservations impact on local inhabitants Karl Jacoby traces the effect of criminalizing such traditional practices as hunting fishing foraging and timber cutting in the newly created parks. Jacoby reassesses the nature of these "crimes" and provides a rich portrait of rural people and their relationship with the natural world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.