by bill-youngs | Sep 14, 2023 | Fireside Talks
October, 2021: I wrote the fireside talk that follows several years ago, while visiting a “History of the American Wilderness ” student, Brian O’Riley. At the beginning of the class that year — as this year also — the students introduced...
by bill-youngs | Sep 14, 2023 | Fireside Talks
Wadi Rum is a marvelous wilderness of sand and rock in the Kingdom of Jordan. Long ago it was the setting for some of the scenes in the film “Lawrence of Arabia.” Recently it was the setting for all of the “Martian” scenery in the film of that...
by bill-youngs | Sep 14, 2023 | Fireside Talks
Even as we have “tamed” the wilderness, we SEEK new ways of experiencing danger outside. In our Nash reading this week, we learned about Joseph Knowles who ventured naked and alone into the wilderness in Maine to show that risk and hardiness were still...
by bill-youngs | Sep 14, 2023 | Fireside Talks
During the past several weeks we have considered the wilderness, as did the early pioneers as a fearsome place in inhabited by fearsome creatures. Usually these have been large animals, such as the bear that attacked Hugh Glass and haunted the dreams of Bill Bryson....
by bill-youngs | Sep 14, 2023 | Fireside Talks
In History 453 we will often confront the question, “Just what is wilderness anyway”? You will notice that your instructor tends to “cast a wide net” to include many different kinds and degrees of wilderness. I sense wilderness sometimes...
