History

History 2129/EnvS 2449 Reading Guide

Fishermen, Sportsmen, and Conservation

• Richard R. Wescott, “Early Conservation Programs and the Development of the Vacation Industry in Maine, 1865-1900,” Maine Historical Society Quarterly 27.1 (1987), 2-13. (e-reserve)
• Richard W. Judd, “Reshaping Maine’s Landscape: Rural Culture, Tourism, and Conservation, 1890-1929,” Journal of Forest History 32 (1988), 180-190. (e-reserve)
• Richard W. Judd, “Saving the Fisherman as Well as the Fish: Conservation and Commercial Rivalry in Maine’s Lobster Industry, 1872-1933,” Business History Review 62 (Winter 1988), 596-625. (e-reserve)

Questions:

• What kind of case study does late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Maine offer for examining the evolution and development of conservation ideology and policy? According to Wescott and Judd, in what ways was it representative of other regional or national models? What were the peculiarly Maine features of the evolution of Maine conservation consciousness?
• What were the motivations for conservation efforts in Maine? How did politics and political controversy shape conservation policies in Maine? Is it better to have any conservation measure, regardless of whose interests are being served, rather than none at all?
• How did the principles and goals of early conservation programs in Maine vary among resources and over time? How did a conservation consciousness in Maine evolve? How did the interconnections of different vested interests, scientific arguments about resource management, and the development of legislative conservation policy shape the history of conservation in Maine in the early twentieth century?