MAN, EARTH AND CHANGE
By
Subtitled ""The Principles and History of Conservation,"" this is neither survey nor study; rather it is an extended, distended tract shot through with figures of speech in lieu of specifics-- and sometimes in violation of good sense: ""When men became farmers, they made their Magna Carta with nature""; ""When European man came to America, he found a continent teeming with climax life. At the top of this lush totem pole stood the Indian, spirit and blood brother to all living things. . . ."" Examples of deleterious practices abound, but none is treated in depth or detail, and there is virtually no classification of disorders and few precise remedies. The cursory history of conservation in the United States is instructive only for the three phases (preservationist, regulatory, ecological) into which the author divides it. She is connected with the Department of the Interior and obviously knows what's going on (see the muffled effects of sonic boom) but the book is inchoate.