Early spring morning at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico

RESOURCES: BOOKS AND ARTICLES THAT MAKE THE CONNECTION

BOOKS

I. ABOUT REPUBLICANS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Losing Earth: A Recent History
Nathaniel Rich, 2019

The Republican Reversal: Conservatives and the Environment from Nixon to Trump
James Morton Turner and Andrew C. Isenberg, 2019

Green Republican: John Saylor and the Preservation of America’s Wilderness
Thomas G. Smith, a sports and environmental historian, 2006

Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party)
Rod Dreher, senior editor and blogger at The American Conservative, 2006

The Greening of Conservative America
John R. E. Bliese, Ph.D., Professor at Texas Tech University, 2002

The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist
Gordon Durnil, former chairman of the Indiana Republican Party and member of the International Joint Commission, 2001

The National Parks Compromised: Pork Barrel Politics and America’s Treasures
James M. Ridenour, former National Parks Service Director under President George H. W. Bush, 1994

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot 
Russell Kirk, 1953

 

II. ABOUT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN GENERAL

Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of a New Republican Party
Julian E. Zelizer, 2020

It Was All a Lie : How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
Stuart Stevens, 2020

How the Right Lost Its Mind
Charles Sykes, 2018

When Republicans Were Progressive
David Durenberger, former U.S. Senator from Minnesota, 2018

It’s My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America
Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey, 2006

ARTICLES

2020

Trump’s border wall was a complete waste of time and money, Washington Post editorial

I’m a Conservative Christian Environmentalist. No, That’s Not an Oxymoron. Erika Andersen, New York Times

My Fellow Conservatives Are Out of Touch on the Environment. By abandoning a major issue, my party is hurting itself politically.  Tom Ridge (former Governor of Pennsylvania and first head of the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush), The Atlantic

Toward a Conservative Environmentalism, Nate Hochman, The National Review

An Earth Day Reminder of How the Republicans Have Forsaken the Environment, Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker

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2019

Young Conservatives Want a Voice on the Environment, Benjamin Backer, The Catalyst

When did moral clarity become radical? Nathaniel Rich (author of Losing Earth: A Recent History, 2019), New York Times

The Once Common Republican Environmentalist Is Virtually Extinct, John Nichols, The Nation

The Bipartisan Beginning of the Clean Water Act, Ellen Simon, The Waterkeeper Alliance

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2018

The Term “Republican Environmentalist” Is Not an Oxymoron, William K. Reilly (former EPA Administrator under President George H. W. Bush), Scientific American

Once upon a time… It wasn’t too long ago that “Republican environmentalist” was a thingPeter Dykstra, Environmental Health News

Don’t Let Anyone Fool You: There ARE Environmental Conservatives. And they’re pissed. Zoya Teirstein, Mother Jones

Wanted: The next great Republican environmental hero. Will the next Teddy Roosevelt or Arnold Schwarzenegger please stand up?  Kirk Weinert, Medium.com

A Wake-Up Call for the G.O.P.  Mark Sanford (former Congressman and Governor of South Carolina), New York Times

Meet the 20-year-old Republican with an environmental agenda. Nathanael Johnson, Grist

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2017

How Republicans came to embrace anti-environmentalism, Christopher Sellers, Vox

Also in this section: NOTABLE QUOTES: REPUBLICANS ON THE RECORD

Return to WHEN THE GOP WAS GREEN.

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Photo at top: Migrating birds find food and sanctuary at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, located on the Pecos River in southern New Mexico (photo © Martha Marks)