The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

From The Week of May 02, 2010

In connecting the Big Burn of 1910 to an entertaining retelling of the history of both firefighting and environmentalism in the United States, Mr. Egan has done a wise thing. For it's clear, early on, that, for as spectacular as the Big Burn was, charring 12,000 square kilometers and killing 87 people, many of them firefighters, the event itself is far too faded in our cultural memory to warrant being the subject of an entire book. Without television cameras and constant flyovers to tell its tale, the fire remains mostly confined to legend and, thus, hard to animate. But couching it inside a discussion about the Forestry Service, its origins, its mission and its policies, Mr. Egan has crafted an quality micro history of a fire that changed the United States.

We journey from Theodore Roosevelt's White House to the forests of Washington and Idaho in this tale of politics and pyrotechnics. Woven into vivid descriptions of the Big Burn, retold through previously published eyewitness accounts, we see how this singular fire put to rest a great debate over how the land should be shaped. Was it proper to fight fires? Was it not better to let them burn, presumably as they had always done for time immemorial? Or was it better to intervene and curtail the damage? The Big Burn ended the question, causing the United States to adopt a plan of intervention where possible. But if, in time, this policy has been questioned, sometimes vehemently so, the Big Burn did give one, transformative victory to environmentalists. The spectacular gave Roosevelt and his allies an opportunity to pass ideological legislation which codified and strengthened the Forestry Service, justifying it on the basis that good stewardship of the land was inherent to American patriotism, that something has to be preserved for future generations, that they might enjoy nature as much as the generations which came before. And in this, we see the cultivation of the vein of naturalism that's run through the American character ever since, serving as a counterweight against corporate rapaciousness.

This is a satisfying read, but the focus is a bit too narrow to be truly edifying to anyone who isn't already interested in the Forestry Service or in environmental conservation. Needed a bit more macro to delight. (3/5 Stars)