From conviction to recreation: Earth First!, Friends of the Los Angeles River and the culture of American environmentalism (California, John Dewey, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Olmsted, Lewis Mumford)

This dissertation presents a cultural and intellectual history of American environmentalism to frame a comparative analysis of two contemporary alternative environmental groups, Earth First! and Friends of the Los Angeles River. Earth First! is a wilderness advocacy group. The Friends (or FoLAR) work towards the restoration of an urban river. I also examine two rural movements, bioregionalism and collaborative conservation. I outline two opposing cultural and ideological currents in American environmentalism—the mythic narrative of Virgin Land and the narrative of Good People and Good Land. The Virgin Land narrative portrays wilderness as a source of inspiration and vitality, a refuge from a corrupt, materialistic urban civilization. This narrative originated from the conservation movement of the early twentieth century, was amplified by wilderness advocate John Muir, and still circulates among mainstream environmentalists. The second narrative portrays small, decentralized communities in harmony with nature. I associate bioregionalism and collaborative conservation with this narrative. I illustrate the development of this narrative through the agrarian pastoral of Thomas Jefferson, the urban pastoral of Central Park designer Frederick Olmsted, and the communitarian pastoral of early twentieth century regional planner and social critic Lewis Mumford. I critique the Virgin Land rhetoric of Earth First!, which not only separates nature from society, but also leads to a separation of political activism from experience in wilderness. I critique the pastoral narrative of Mumford, which does not readily accommodate internal conflict, change, or difference. I discover similar problems in the urban pastoral of FoLAR. However, the Friends also modify the narrative to (potentially) attract a broad popular base of support. In the final chapter, I adapt the communitarian pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey to justify the activism of Friends of the Los Angeles River, bioregionalists, and collaborative conservationists. This renovated pastoral approaches environmental problems at a human scale, but may also extend conceptual scales of reference; emphasizes democratic self-determination of communities without neglecting the importance of environmental protection; demonstrates political flexibility yet motivates the pursuit of ideals; avoids the dichotomizing tendencies of Earth First! and mainstream environmentalists; and offers a means to incorporate activism into daily life.