A Conservative Environmentalist

A wealthy textile titan from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Frank Masland Jr. was an ardent political conservative and an equally fervent conservationist who was well known and highly respected in the mid-twentieth-century environmental preservation community. This eye-opening biography charts Masland’s life work, telling the story of how he and fellow Republicans worked with Democrats to expand the national park system, preserve wild country, and protect the environment.

Though a conservative conservationist appears to be a contradiction in terms today, this was not necessarily the case when Masland and his compatriots held sway. Conservatives, Masland insisted, had a duty to be good stewards of the earth for present and future generations, and they worked closely with members of both parties in Congress and nonpolitical conservation groups to produce landmark achievements. When conservatives turned against environmentalism during the Reagan presidency, Masland refused to join what historians have termed the “Republican reversal.” During his long life of nearly a hundred years, Masland used his voice, influence, experiences with nature, and considerable wealth to champion environmental causes at the national, state, and local levels.

Engaging, informative, and at times eyebrow-raising, this portrait of a passionately anti-statist nature-loving Republican environmentalist documents the history of the twentieth-century conservation movement and reminds us of a time when conservative Republicans could work with liberal Democrats to protect the environment.

“Frank Masland contained multitudes. Perhaps the only American equally at home with the John Birch Society and Sierra Club, this right-wing Pennsylvania businessman used his wealth and political connections to preserve remote wildernesses he cherished, from the Canyonlands to the Everglades. Thomas G. Smith’s engaging portrait of ‘the most influential conservationist no one has heard of’ offers a deft synthesis of environmental and conservative historiography to spotlight a fascinating historical figure too long overlooked.”—Paul Milazzo, author of Unlikely Environmentalists: Congress and Clean Water, 1945-1972

“Thomas Smith’s engaging biography of Frank Masland Jr. recalls a bygone era in American environmental politics when even ardent conservatives joined in efforts to protect nature. Masland, who reviled communism and labor unions and championed free market principles, also advocated federal measures to safeguard national parks, wilderness areas, and wild and scenic rivers. Smith’s deeply researched and well-crafted book is timely and important.”—Mark Harvey, author of Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act

Thomas G. Smith is Professor Emeritus of History at Nichols College, where he served as Robert Stansky Distinguished Professor. His latest book, Stewart L. Udall: Steward of the Land, was an Evans Biography Award finalist.

Biography & Memoir

History

           U.S.

Nature

Pennsylvania & the Mid-Atlantic

           Nature

Political Science

           Twentieth-century