| William O. Douglas (1898–1980) lived a remarkable life. As the longest-sitting United States Supreme Court justice in American history, and one of the most controversial, Douglas participated in a number of paramount changes in American society. Of the many causes close to his heart, environmental protection stood above all else. Emerging from his childhood of poverty and physical ailments, Douglas became strongly connected to the out-of-doors. He believed that nature offered individuals lessons in independence, spirituality, and the connections among all life. The justice amalgamated his experiences with environmental ideas from intellectuals, including Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Frederick Jackson Turner, and Aldo Leopold, to contribute to the American environmental tradition. In addition, Douglas put environmental protection into the terms of democratic reform. He also used his position on the Court to argue for environmental causes. Douglas's dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton in 1972, for instance, argued that natural objects ought to have standing to sue. It was the most radical environmental position ever advanced in the Supreme Court's history and theoretically extended environmental ethics to new levels. Besides the ideas Douglas articulated, he became an important advocate on behalf of several particular places. Douglas worked for years to protect nature at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest. He wrote books and articles, gave speeches, led protest hikes, and lobbied politicians. His presence in the midst of environmental battles made a difference, for he brought attention to various causes that frequently led to action. In exploring Douglas's environmental life, one discovers strong connections between landscape and identity, history and politics, ideology and action. Douglas's environmental biography demonstrates that individuals live within intricate webs of ideas, relationships, and nature. This dissertation comprehensively explores Douglas's public and private environmental biography focusing on his identity, his ideas, and the places where he worked. |
