Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of the Federal Lands by Richard W. Behan, S29.95 - Review

American Forests, Summer, 2001 by Carl Reidel

This is Behan at his best--hard-hitting, challenging corporate and public institutions for plundering our public lands over 200 years. A respected natural resource scholar and past director of AMERICAN FORESTS Behan sets as his stage the "astonishing extent" of America's public lands: more than a million square miles. He decries their "dismal condition," and blames "corrupted" capitalism and "predatory politics" for an "ingenious, energetic, and sustained effort" to liquidate and privatize their commodities.

The accusations are sweeping, but Behan carefully develops his arguments over five chapters, supporting them with more than 250 footnotes. His final chapter offers new hope for our public lands by calling for a "rebellious and revolutionary" shift "from private goods to public values." This book is a clarion call for an enlightened new agenda for public lands and a must-read for an environmental policy in the new millennium.