bear,” the “large-limbed mooses withnthe tripping deer,” the “red-eyed ferret”nand “ravenous howling wolf” thatnroamed the forests around the Pilgrimnsettlements of the Massachusetts BaynColony; in recognizing the supremacynof these animals in the natural worldnEurope had invaded (“there is littlenhope of their utter destruction, thencountry being so spacious and they sonnumerous”). Wood becomes the firstnexemplar of a long North Americanntradition of ecological writing.nLyon gives careful attention to thesenbeginnings, noting the contributions ofnsuch great but little-known naturalistexplorersnas William Bartram, JohnnJames Audubon, and Thomas Nuttall,neach of whom brought largely selftaughtnscientific sensibilities into thentask of describing the flora and fauna ofnthe new continent. Their work ledndirectly to the less rational celebrationsnof Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose firstnbook, Nature (1836), introduced in itsnturn the deistic, perhaps even pantheisticnspirit that marks so much of naturalnhistory writing today. “In the woods,”nEmerson wrote, “we return to reasonnand faith,” setting Enlightenment dogmanon its head. The last bison in thenEast had been killed in Emerson’snboyhood, but that did not keep himnfrom seeking a cathedral of sanity innthe forests most of his less thoughtfulncountrymen were hell-bent on destroying.nFrom Emerson, Lyon takes us tonHenry David Thoreau, the spiritualnforefather of modern Americannenvironmentalism in all its guises, whonbrought scientific vigor to his oldernfriend’s Transcendentalism. (Thoreaunand Louis Agassiz, one of the firstnAmerican systematic zoologists, oncendrove Emerson to tears of rage byndiscussing the sexual habits of tortoisesnover Sunday dinner.) Thoreau championednwilderness for its own sake andncelebrated an antisocial self-sufficiency;nthat he took his wash home fromnWalden Pond every week for his mothernto do, an oddity Lyon fails to note,ndoes not diminish his contribution to andawning preservationist ethic, bynwhich at least something of the continent’snoriginal grandeur came to benprotected from the rapaciousness ofnthe Industrial Age.nLyon’s anthology offers a first-classnselection of the work of our foremostnnaturalists, from the Scottish wanderernSOUTH AFRICA—WHOSE COUNTRY?nThe “embarrassing disclosures” just reported by the New York Times (April24,1990) ofn”torture” in the ANC have been around since 1982, especially in Washington.n”…Here is reality at last.”—Brian Crozier “…The Denton Hearings first showednthe full extent of repression and liquidation of opposition in the ANC and innSWAPO.”—The Neue Zuercher Zeitung “…incredibly shocking…”—RearnAdmiral W.C. Mott, USN (ret.) “…an honesty all too often missing…”—Orbisn’ ‘Raditsa is right that events in southern Africa are subject to widespread misconceptionsnwhich play into the hands of the declared enemies of democraticn{Teedom.”—Commentary “…elucidates the political morality that designatesnthe most radical opinion, however murderous, as the only true voice of any subjectednpeople.”—HowardnPRISONERS OF A DREAM:nTHE SOUTH AFRICAN MIRAGEn34/CHRONICLESnA Historical Essay on thenDenton HearingsnLEO RADITSAnnnJohn Muir — who thundered, in responsento an unfortunately successfulnplan to make a reservoir in the YosemitenValley, “As well dam for water-tanksnthe people’s cathedrals and churches,nfor no holier temple has been consecratednby the heart of man!” — to AldonLeopold, thanks to whose efforts thenfirst federally protected wild lands werenestablished, and on to such modernngiants as John Haines and EdwardnAbbey.nIn This Incomperable Lande, Lyon’snenterprise and unfailing good tastenhave yielded not only a model of literarynselection and commentary, butna book that is wonderfully patriotic: itncelebrates the best of our continentnand culture, and it reminds us oncenagain of all that we have to protect.nLyon’s book is timely, for wild Americanis hurting, along with the rest of thenplanet, thanks to the shortsightednessnand greed of us humans, slow to learn.nThere is one nature, comprising manynecologies — and many environmentalisms.nIn all of them, to borrow fromnThoreau, lies “the preservation of thenWorld.”n<^nBrotz, author of ThenPolitics of South African”…divulges what the politico-cultural establishment censorsnout”—Lev Navrozov “…a remarkable achievement.”—HerbertnLondon “I cannot speak too highly about this book. Therenis no other like it.”—Arnold Beichman “This is a powerfulnand well-documented look at what is really taking place innSouth Africa…”—Allan Brownfield in ChroniclesnOrder direct from the publisher, the Prince George Street Press,nP.O. Box 252, Annapolis, MD 21404. $25.95 includes shipping .n