The Hunter's Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America (Yale Historical Publications Series) [Paperback]

Mr. Louis S. Warren (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300080867 | ISBN-13: 978-0300080865 | Publication Date: September 10, 1999

This provocative book takes a new look at the angry struggles between American conservationists and local hunters since the rise of wildlife conservation at the end of the 1800s. From Italian immigrants in Pennsylvania, to rural settlers and Indians in New Mexico, to Blackfeet in Montana, local hunters' traditions of using wildlife have clashed with conservationist ideas of "proper" hunting for over a century. Louis Warren contends that these conflicts arose from deep social divisions and that the bitter history of conservation offers a new narrative for the history of the American West. At the heart of western-and American-history, Warren argues, is the transformation of many local resources, like wildlife, into "public goods," or "national commons." The Hunter's Game reveals that early wildlife conservation was driven not by heroic idealism, but by the interests of recreational hunters and the tourist industry. As American wildlife populations declined at the end of the nineteenth century, elite, urban sportsmen began to lobby for game laws that would restrict the customary hunting practices of immigrants, Indians, and other local hunters. Not surprisingly, poor subsistence and market hunters resisted, sometimes violently. Dramatic shifts in deer and elk populations-the result of complex environmental dynamics-further complicated the struggles. Warren concludes that the history of wildlife conservation sheds much light on the tensions between local and national priorities that pervade twentieth-century American culture.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ask any resident of a rural area about hunting season in their community and you're sure to get their favorite stories: the malamute that was mistaken for a wolf and shot by that fellow from New York, or the guy driving back to Boston with a goat strapped to his fender, convinced he'd bagged a deer. The tensions and prejudices between country and city are never more evident than during hunting season, and in The Hunter's Game, Louis S. Warren provides an interesting historical perspective to the subject. According to Warren, until the turn of the century, hunting was unregulated, and for many working-class people it was a way to supplement their family's diet. Then the government intervened, designating wildlife as a community resource that had to be managed, and a kind of war broke out between mostly immigrant communities and the wildlife officers sent to enforce new regulations.

What makes The Hunter's Game more than just an interesting anecdote about a historical event is Warren's persuasive argument that hunter's rights and the government's ability to regulate them is emblematic of the sometimes uneasy relationship between individuals and their government. Nearly 100 years later, balancing the individual's rights with the greater good of society is still a contentious issue on many fronts, and the story Louis S. Warren tells is more relevant than ever. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Warren tells the story with competently drawn reports of the nasty fights between government agents and hunters in New Mexico, Montana, and especially Western Pennsylvania.... -- The New York Times Book Review, Keith Schneider --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300080867
• ISBN-13: 978-0300080865
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #962,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Reading for Conservationists, July 1, 2009

By 

Ronald Moody "Couleeking" (Middle of Montana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hunter's Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America (Yale Historical Publications Series) (Paperback)

Warren slices deep into the seemingly endless and culturally opaque conflicts of American history when new peoples clash with old communities over use and control of natural resources.
This book is classified as history but the conflict lines and the human cultures described from the past are as contemporary as tomorrow throughout the Rocky Mountain West of today. The story of this book is still unfolding. Local communities with established commons are still being overwhelmed by distant national constituencies for wilderness and endangered species. And those national constituencies are still saving our last wild things and wild places from certain extinction at the hands of an aggrandizing capitalist society.
Warren makes a valuable contribution to understanding an internal frontier that rivals Race, Class and Civil Rights as great American struggles.
Best of all, Warren takes no sides; he maintains academic objectivity in a context where people today still look at other Americans with complete lack of understanding and blind anger.
Aldo Leopold students should read this book for a key insight into Leopold's early career.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written and Compelling, April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hunter's Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America (Yale Historical Publications Series) (Hardcover)

A well-written and insightful book by an up-and-coming star in the field of the history of the American West.