2005 Lecture

Abstract: Dr. Patricia Limerick, Professor of History, University of Colorado, examined how various interest groups “invoke” Roosevelt and Leopold and the subsequent patterns of change and continuity in the guiding principles of conservation. The talk concluded with an examination of the nation’s ongoing, vastly consequential experiment, testing the compatibility of democracy with conservation. The lecture was held November 9, 2005 in the Love Auditorium at Duke University.

Patricia Nelson Limerick, born and raised in Banning, California, is a Western American historian with particular interests in ethnic history and environmental history. She taught at Harvard University before joining the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Limerick has published a wide variety of books, articles and reviews. Her best known work, The Legacy of Conquest, has had a major impact on the field of Western American History. Her books in progress include Something in the Soil (a collection of essays) and The Atomic West.