2012 Lecture
“‘If You Build It. . .’: The Transcontinental Railroads and the Environmental Consequences of Premature Development”
by Dr. Richard White
Environmental historian Dr. Richard White delivered the 2012 Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History. His lecture, “‘If You Build It . . .’: The Transcontinental Railroads and the Environmental Consequences of Premature Development,“ uses the development of the transcontinental railroads during the late 19th century as a lens to explore the historical context of premature development and its inevitable environmental costs. The lessons learned, White argues, can then be applied to many of today’s environmental issues.
Richard White is the author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, and is a professor of American History at Stanford University and a Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian specializing in the history of the American West, environmental history, and Native American history.
The 2012 Lecture was held on Thursday, November 8th at 4:30 pm in Room 2231 of the French Family Science Center on Duke University’s West Campus (map of the area).
The Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History is sponsored by the Forest History Society, the Duke University Department of History, and the Nicholas School of the Environment.
For more information please contact Dr. James Lewis, Forest History Society historian, at (919) 682-9319.
