Kill Cowboy HB by Russell
To environmentalists, wilderness is a valuable resource and a sacred place; to many ranchers, wilderness means eviction and government interference. Russell, herself a westerner, here tackles the complex and controversial issues of land health and wildlife in the West. A provocative and enlightening account.-Publishers Weekly Rising larger than life against the Western horizon, the cowboy sits astride his horse right in the middle of American mythology, husbanding our ideals of freedom, independence, and valor. And grazing his cattle on the wide-open land, he leaves a dusty trail: weeds spring up, scrub brush flourishes, wildlife declines, ground compacts, soil erodes, streambeds turn into dry gullies. Treading a fine line between the idyllic myth and the harsh facts of real-life ranching, this book offers a measured look at the struggle over the future of the American West, where visions of the land sharply divide between those who want to use it, those who want to save it from abuse, and those who see a middle way. Fairly-though envisioning a revamping of the current grazing system-Sharman Apt Russell describes the present battles that pit ranchers against environmentalists, new Westerners against old, private concerns against government policies. The story she tells is dramatic, animated with the distinctive personalities and contentious episodes that have shaped current debates. It is also scrupulously attentive to the details of history, politics, and economics in the region. Grounded in a deep respect for land, this elegantly written, well-reasoned book begins the work of reevaluating our heroic myths and immediate needs in a way that will prove sustainable for all the West's inhabitants. Take the cowboy, please, and send him packing, along with all his mythological baggage--or so argues Russell. . . in this provocative and iconoclastic study. . . . Russell takes a cultural icon and, in one bold stroke, brings it full circle from myth to menace. The West needs a new image, and she's given us many to choose from.-Kirkus Reviews
Sharman was awarded the 2016 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing--past recipients include Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and Roger Tory Peterson--for her nonfiction Diary of a Citizen Scientist. She is deeply honored and pleased. Although considered a science and nature writer, essentially the author writes about whatever interests her and seems important--living in place, archaeology, flowers, butterflies, hunger, pantheism. Recent awards also include the WILLA Award for creative nonfiction from Women Writing the West, an Arizona Authors Award for her YA novel Teresa of the New World, and a New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for her science fiction Knocking on Heaven's Door. For more information, and other news, please go to her Facebook author page Sharman Apt Russell. Or her website www.sharmanaptrussell.com. A little bit of bio: Raised in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981 Sharman settled in southern New Mexico as a back to the lander and has stayed there ever since. She is a professor emeritus in the Humanities Department at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, as well as an associate faculty at Antioch University in Los Angeles. She received a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and a B.S. in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley. She has two children who are grown up--quite sadly and naturally, they left home. As a teacher, her philosophy is simple: her goal is to increase a student's authority as a writer. She works to encourage and support that authority. She helps students better revise their work. She teaches students how to talk about writing with other writers and help them feel more centered in who they are as writers and why they write. She also serves as an editor and mentor and can model a writer's life. As well as teaching at WNMU and Antioch, for the last twenty years she has been a visiting writer at universities and colleges across the country.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780201581232 |
| ISBN 10 | 020158123X |
| Title | Kill Cowboy HB |
| Author | Russell |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Addison Wesley Longman (Higher Education Division, Pearson Education) |
| Year published | 1993-06-01 |
| Number of pages | 217 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |