Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires
Though there are historical narratives about fire, several by Pyne, a former firefighter and a professor at Arizona State University, few deal with fire policy. Here Pyne argues that firefighting policy is influenced by national traditions and that it is a cultural construct just like art or architecture. There are four ways to deal with fire: do nothing, suppress, prescribe burn, or change the combustibility of the landscape. Focusing on federal lands, Pyne catalogs the evolution of fire policy, tracing unusual influences ranging from FDR's New Deal to the cold war to the culture of protest in the 1960s. While the text sometimes veers toward hyperbole (the 2003 California fires are "an intifada of nature") and hard-to-prove theses (Pyne feelsStar Trekinfluenced fire policy in the 1960s), the author's arguments are frequently thought-provoking. Ultimately, Pyne warns that the U.S. has gone from a "fire-flushed country to a fire-starved one" and calls for reform in wildfire management.Rebecca MakselCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved