This Contested Land
The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments
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Narrated by:
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McKenzie Long
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By:
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McKenzie Long
About this listen
One woman's enlightening trek through the natural histories, cultural stories, and present perils of thirteen national monuments
Starting amid the sagebrush of Bears Ears National Monument on the eve of the Trump Administration's decision to reduce the site by eighty-five percent, McKenzie Long climbs sandstone cliffs, is awed by Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings, and is intrigued by 4,000-year-old petroglyphs. She hikes through remote pink canyons recently removed from the boundary of Grand Staircase-Escalante, skis to a backcountry hut in Maine to view a truly dark night sky, snorkels in warm Hawaiian waters to plumb the meaning of marine preserves, volunteers near the most contaminated nuclear site in the US, and witnesses firsthand the diverse forms of devotion evoked by the Rio Grande. In essays both contemplative and resonant, this book confronts an unjust past and imagines a collaborative future that bears witness to these regions' enduring Indigenous connections.
From climate change realities to volatile tensions between economic development and environmental conservation, practical and philosophical issues arise as Long seeks the complicated and often overlooked stories of these incomparable places. Her journey emphasizes in clear and urgent terms the unique significance of, and grave threats to, these contested lands.
©2022 McKenzie Long (P)2023 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- By Jennifer on 01-27-22
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Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
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Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
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A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
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I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
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The Gulf
- The Making of an American Sea
- By: Jack E. Davis
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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When painter Winslow Homer first sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, he was struck by its "special kind of providence." Indeed, the Gulf presented itself as America's sea - bound by geography, culture, and tradition to the national experience - and yet, there has never been a comprehensive history of the Gulf until now. And so, in this rich and original work that explores the Gulf through our human connection with the sea, environmental historian Jack E. Davis finally places this exceptional region into the American mythos in a sweeping history that extends from the Pleistocene age to the 21st century.
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Decolonize gulf history
- By Jesse Carr on 05-02-18
By: Jack E. Davis
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The Man Who Walked Through Time
- The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon
- By: Colin Fletcher
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1963 Colin Fletcher became the first man to walk the length of Grand canyon, below the Rim. It began with a dream, when he and a friend detoured from a cross-country trip to take a hurried look at the great natural wonder. Standing on the Rim, surrounded by the profound and almost mystical silence, Fletcher knew that something had happened to the way he looked at things. He also knew that the Canyon, with its depths and distances, cliffs, buttes, and hanging terraces, beckoned to him, calling him on a journey that would challenge both his body and his mind.
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Eloquent
- By Bill J on 07-20-20
By: Colin Fletcher
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Northland
- A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border
- By: Porter Fox
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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America's northern border is the world's longest international boundary, yet it remains obscure even to Americans. Travel writer Porter Fox spent two years exploring its length by canoe, freighter, and car - and in Northland, he delivers the little-known history of the region and a riveting account of his travels. Fox follows explorer Samuel de Champlain's adventures; recounts the rise and fall of the iron, wheat, and timber industries; crosses the Great Lakes on a freighter; and tracks America's fur traders through the Boundary Waters.
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Great listen - great narrator
- By Jonathan on 01-10-19
By: Porter Fox
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Water in Plain Sight
- Hope for a Thirsty World
- By: Judith D. Schwartz
- Narrated by: Tia Rider
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Water scarcity is on everyone's mind. Long taken for granted, water availability has entered the realm of economics, politics, and people's food and lifestyle choices. But as anxiety mounts - even as a swath of California farmland has been left fallow and extremist groups worldwide exploit the desperation of people losing livelihoods to desertification - many are finding new routes to water security with key implications for food access, economic resilience, and climate change.
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Crucial solutions
- By Shane Emanuelle on 07-25-19
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Miracle Country
- A Memoir
- By: Kendra Atleework
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero. Kendra's family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price.
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The best memoir I've read
- By Patricia on 08-15-20
By: Kendra Atleework
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The Wilderness Warrior
- Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
- By: Douglas Brinkley
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 40 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I.
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I DID keep listening
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 01-13-10
By: Douglas Brinkley
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Lassoing the Sun
- A Year in America's National Parks
- By: Mark Woods
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning 50, and a little burned out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks.
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great narrator, lackluster story, wonderful themes
- By MT on 08-21-18
By: Mark Woods
What listeners say about This Contested Land
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-27-23
Great car ride listen
This book is great. It’s not only a book that talks about the author’s personal experiences and those she interviewed, but also goes in depth about the history of national monuments and what the monuments mean to multiple groups of people. The good, the bad, and the heartwarming. The story weaves in facts about nature and birds, design elements, thoughtful questions and multiple perspectives. Her usage of color and descriptors makes you feel like you are at the monuments and her passions really come through as she reads the book.
It’s definitely worth a listen especially if you are on a road trip exploring parks and the natural world.
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- Dave Cramer
- 04-07-23
This is an amazing book - very interesting
If you like the outdoors, care about our environment, and just like reading about very interesting places, buy this book. It is told in a very easy to listen to way. My wife and I listened to it while traveling in New Zealand, it was wonderful. At the airport ready to fly back to the US we were looking for our next trip to one of the many monuments talked about in this book. Listen to this --- you will not be sorry. DOC
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