Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the
Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology (University of Chicago Press,
2009) 512 pp., 60 figures.  $35.00.  ISBN: 978-0226038148.

The rapid growth of the American environmental movement in recent
decades obscures the fact that long before the first Earth Day and the
passage of the Endangered Species Act, naturalists and concerned
citizens recognized--and worried about--the problem of human-caused
extinction.

As Mark V. Barrow reveals in Nature's Ghosts, the threat of species loss
has haunted Americans since the early days of the republic. From Thomas
Jefferson's day--when the fossil remains of such fantastic lost animals
as the mastodon and the woolly mammoth were first reconstructed--through
the pioneering conservation efforts of early naturalists like John James
Audubon and John Muir, Barrow shows how Americans came to understand
that it was not only possible for entire species to die out, but that
humans themselves could be responsible for their extinction. With the
destruction of the passenger pigeon and the precipitous decline of the
bison, professional scientists and wildlife enthusiasts alike began to
understand that even very common species were not safe from the
juggernaut of modern, industrial society. That realization spawned
public education and legislative campaigns that laid the foundation for
the modern environmental movement and the preservation of such iconic
creatures as the bald eagle, the California condor, and the whooping
crane.

A sweeping, beautifully illustrated historical narrative that unites the
fascinating stories of endangered animals and the dedicated individuals
who have studied and struggled to protect them, Nature's Ghosts offers
an unprecedented view of what we've lost--and a stark reminder of the
hard work of preservation still ahead.

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