Books by Char Miller

Natural Consequences is a collection of forty-two environmental essays by Char Miller, Professor of Environmental Analysis & History at Pomona College in Southern California. These essays variously encourage readers to get out in nature, to take a hike and restore our relationship to the land in order to better recognize the challenges of climate change. Collected into six sections, these personal narratives explore the threats of fire, drought, development, and fracking. Char Miller is well aware of climate change and the ecological degradation developed nations are causing. From personal experiences in his Southern California neighborhood or through his travel, Char Miller explores the damage of the dominant cultures on the environment and the need to address environmental injustice. His thoughtful vignettes and fascinating historical interpretations clearly lay out our challenges. Willing to admit his own role in our worldwide crisis, Char Miller's essays offer local, regional, and global solutions to reduce the natural consequences of our actions.

The 1921 flood that put a spotlight on environmental and social inequality in a southwestern city

Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism, the first new biography in more than three decades, offers a fresh interpretation of the life and work of the famed conservationist and Progressive politician. In addition to considering Gifford Pinchot's role in the environmental movement, historian Char Miller sets forth an engaging description and analysis of the man -- his character, passions, and personality -- and the larger world through which he moved.Char Miller begins by describing Pinchot's early years and the often overlooked influence of his family and their aspirations for him. He examines Gifford Pinchot's post-graduate education in France and his ensuing efforts in promoting the profession of forestry in the United States and in establishing and running the Forest Service. While Pinchot's twelve years as chief forester (1898-1910) are the ones mhistorians and biographers focus on, Char Miller also offers an extensive examination of Pinchot's post-federal career as head of The National Conservation Association and as two-term governor of Pennsylvania. In addition, he looks at Pinchot's marriage to feminist Cornelia Bryce and discusses her role in Pinchot's political radicalization throughout the 1920s and 1930s. An epilogue explores Gifford Pinchot's final years and writings.Char Miller offers a provocative reconsideration of key events in Pinchot's life, including his relationship with friend and mentor John Muir and their famous disagreemover damming Hetch Hetchy Valley. The author brings together insights from cultural and social history and recently discovered primary sources to support a new interpretation of Pinchot -- whose activism not only helped define environmental politics in early twentieth century America but remains strikingly relevant today.

Miller shows how government institutions changed the meaning of American citizenship during the World War II era.