Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History

2007 Lecture: "Remaking American Environmentalism: On the Banks of the L.A. River"

by Dr. Jenny Price

The lecture was later published as an article, "Remaking American Environmentalism: On the Banks of the L.A. River." Environmental History Vol. 13 (July) 2008. 536-555 pp.

Watch Lecture Online (requires Quicktime Player)

[ Full text of lecture in PDF format ]

Environmentalism has come under fire from many avenues, charging that the movement has historically paid too much attention to wilderness preservation and not enough to economic and racial inequalities; while also emphasizing technological fixes over basic social and economic reforms. Price suggests that a new environmentalism is rooted in the conviction that the future health of cities and wilderness alike depends on how fairly and sustainably we use and inhabit nature in the places where people live. She explores the resurrection of the Los Angeles River as a vibrant model. The lecture took place Nov. 12th , 2007 in Love Auditorium, LSRC, Duke University West Campus.

Dr. Price is the author of Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America and has been published in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Audubon, and LA Weekly. She leads frequent tours of the L.A. River, and is working on a new book, 13 Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A.

The Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History is sponsored by the Forest History Society, the Duke University Department of History, and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. For more information please contact Dr. Steven Anderson, Forest History Society president, at tel.: (919) 682-9319.