Mining America
The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980
University Press of Colorado
Mining America is a vivid account of the damage wrought by almost two centuries of mining, but its main focus is on the conflicting attitudes behind the destruction and on society's responses. Veteran author and historian Duane Smith asserts that the marriage of mining and environmental issues was bound to touch America's sensitive pocketbook nerve - but the question now is, are all groups willing to pay the price?
...a well-documented survey...of the destructive impact of American mining practice upon the environment, and of the increasing public and political reaction to the devastation that mining produces. In a time when there is more heat than light generated upon the subject, it is a pleasure to note that the author has remained fair and dispassionate.'
—Western Historical Quarterly
This book presents, in rich detail, the first balanced portrait of the clash between the world of the profit-oriented, individualistic mining man and the cosmos of the environmental worshipper... It is an important book, a powerful book, a book of optimism and sanity... coming from one of our most able historians of the American West.'
—Gene Gressley, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming
Duane A. Smith is a professor of history at Fort Lewis College in Durango, and is the author or coauthor of more than fifty books on Colorado and the West. He also serves as chair of the Durango Parks and Forestry Board and on the Anima School House Museum Board.
