Rick B. (bup) - , reviewed on 2/14/2013 + 165 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

I can only imagine that higher-ups added the subtitle to this book, because of the rule that all nonfiction books must have subtitles, but Teddy Roosevelt is the star of this book in the same way that Jack Nicholson is the star of Little Shop of Horrors. And the thesis that the subtitle promises is only investigated as one of a few theses of the last fifty pages, where the author looks at the fire's consequences. "Fire that Saved America's *Forests*" might be more accurate, and better anyway, because it's all the more paradoxical.

So. I really enjoyed the book. He captures the confusion and hugeness of the living fire itself, the petulant whims of who it killed and passed by, and the designed unequipedness of the very young forest service to fight it. It has heroes, villains, and a great plot. It makes me seriously consider a trip to Montana and Idaho just to see the Coeur d'Alene forest and the enormity of what happened there, and the fossils and ghosts that remain.

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