Youdelis, Megan. Review of In Defense of Public Lands: The Case against Privatization and Transfer by John Studley, Conservation & Society 17, no. 2 (2019): 220-21. https://doi.org/10.4103/cs.cs_18_139.
Davis, Steven. In Defense of Public Lands: The Case against Privatization and Transfer. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2018.
Although there have been cyclical movements to privatise U.S. public lands since their inception, the Trump administration’s rise to power could arguably serve as a catalyst to make it a reality. In In Defense of Public Lands (p. xi), Steven Davis writes “To those interested in keeping public land public, our nation has entered an extremely perilous age.” Davis describes the legislative attacks on public lands, which became more spirited and determined since the rise of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party. He provides a forceful and unapologetic defense of keeping public lands public in this political climate. He presents this as his political aim in the preface, and explains that the book is therefore “aimed as much at the policy maker and citizen as the scholar” (p. xii). The book is an accessible read and makes convincing and clear arguments against privatisation from ecological, economic, political, and ethical standpoints. (Excerpt from the book review)
© Megan Youdelis 2019. Conservation & Society is available online only and is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.5).