by Brian O'Riley | Nov 7, 2023 | Fireside Talks
(Note I visited the Opal Creek Wilderness region on the weekend of December 1-3, 2017, and wrote this talk during the following week.) I am calling this final Fireside Talk “Return to Opal Creek” even though I had never even been to Opal Creek until the...
by Brian O'Riley | Nov 2, 2023 | Fireside Talks
John Muir, Biographical Sketch Source: American Realities HISTORICAL EPISODES FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE PRESENT VOLUME 2 J. William T. Youngs New York, Longman, 2011 In the essay below, we will review the life of America’s foremost park advocate. SUMMARY: Like...
by Brian O'Riley | Oct 24, 2023 | Fireside Talks
J. William T. Youngs, Professor of History, Eastern Washington University 2012 Thoreau Society Annual Gathering “Celebrating 150 Years of Thoreau’s Life, Works, and Legacy” I want to begin by confessing to the singularity of my using a MacBook for my...
by Brian O'Riley | Oct 19, 2023 | Fireside Talks
One (of many) recurrent themes in History 373 is the question of the ways in which and the degree to which we expose ourselves to the wilderness. And which of these ways and degrees seem legitimate — as measured by our class standards — and which levels of...
by Brian O'Riley | Sep 14, 2023 | Fireside Talks
“I wonder what it must be like to spend a few days at Guesthouse 102, I wonder if Dr. Youngs could post pictures of the inside of the building?” A Wilderness student asked me this question after reading my talk, “A Polar Bear’s Death.”...
