Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
    Unavailable
    The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
    Unavailable
    The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West

    Written by John F. Ross

    Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A timely new account of the first complete exploration of the Grand Canyon and Powell's subsequent career as a pioneer of sustainable development in the West—a classic of American historical adventure that also lays the path for the environmental issues still with us today.

    When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier—the final exploration of continental America. The son of an Ohio abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled its last uncharted feature—the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today (thanks to Powell) as the Grand Canyon.

    John Ross recreates Powell's expedition in all its glory and terror, but it was his second career as a scientist, bureaucrat, and land-management pioneer that concerns us today, advocating vociferously (and unsuccessfully) for sustainable development of the West. Powell was the first to ask: how should the development of the west be shaped? How much could the land support? What was the role of the government and private industry in all of this? He began a national conversation about stewardship of the new land when most everyone else still looked upon it as simply an inexhaustibly exploitable resource. Though he supported irrigation and dams, his prescient warnings forecast the 1930s dustbowl and the growing water scarcities of today. Practical, yet visionary, his path reflects this nation's hard journey toward embracing a balance of growth with sustainability. Powell didn't have all the answers, but was first to ask the right questions.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 3, 2018
    ISBN9780525529675
    Unavailable
    The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
    Author

    John F. Ross

    JOHN F. ROSS is the author of War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier. Winner of the Fort Ticonderoga Prize for Contributions to American History, he has served as the Executive Editor of American Heritage and on the Board of Editors at Smithsonian magazine.

    More audiobooks from John F. Ross

    Related to The Promise of the Grand Canyon

    Related audiobooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How the West Was Lost

      Sep 10, 2018

      How the West Was Lost
      9 min read

    • Article

      An All-American Monument to Nature

      Nov 14, 2023

      YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. More than 4 million people a year visit this 3,648-square-mile, seemingly unbounded paradise to watch boiling springs. They come to see thundering waterfalls and majestic mountains, elk and bison—the pure, unadulterated Nor

      5 min read

    • Article

      Nasa’s War With The Hippies

      Mar 19, 2020

      Nasa’s War With The Hippies
      2 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Drain The Swamp

      Nov 13, 2022

      Don’t Drain The Swamp
      2 min read

    • Article

      Obama: The Ocean President

      Jan 4, 2017

      Obama: The Ocean President
      6 min read

    • Article

      How James Fenimore Cooper Redefined “Pioneer”

      Feb 22, 2018

      Pioneer. The word often evokes esteem and reverence here in America, and those bold enough to earn the honorific are vaulted to an almost holy, prophet-like status. We cheer technological pioneers like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates; extol political pione

      7 min read

    • Article

      THE Radically INTERNATIONAL History of AMERICA’S BEST IDEA

      Jun 1, 2017

      The United States may have invented national parks—but the rest of the world helped perfect them. Now, generations later, that spirit of cooperation and competition might just be the thing that saves them.

      11 min read

    • Article

      A Debate That Built A Park

      Sep 1, 2018

      A Debate That Built A Park
      7 min read

    • Article

      It's A Grand Canyon

      Jul 1, 2019

      It's A Grand Canyon
      3 min read

    • Article

      Along Rivers and Through Prairies

      Oct 1, 2023

      Before Dr. Robert Moore (RIGHT) became an educator at Washington University in St. Louis, he was a historian who worked for the National Park Service for 40 years. He enjoys doing historical research and using architectural drawing programs to create

      5 min read

    • Article

      Readers Write: The Monitor’s Moon Landing Coverage

      Aug 10, 2019

      Readers shared their thoughts on our moon landing cover story. Some wondered about the costs involved in space travel.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Grand Anniversaries

      Jan 22, 2019

      Grand Anniversaries
      1 min read

    • Article

      Pursuing the White Whale

      Dec 2, 2019

      Pursuing the White Whale
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Standoff

      Aug 11, 2022

      The Standoff
      19 min read

    • Article

      Presidents And The West

      Jun 9, 2020

      Presidents And The West
      8 min read

    • Article

      Looking Back

      Jun 3, 2019

      HAS THE PACE AT WHICH we revisit events of 50 years ago quickened lately? If so, is that because those events were so significant or because the present has become so unnerving to look upon? Yes, 1968 brought momentous assassinations and democracy-in

      2 min read

    • Article

      The River Expedition That Opened The American West

      Dec 21, 2023

      In 1669, a French Jesuit priest living at a mission in present-day Wisconsin heard from members of the Illinois tribe about a great river. Intrigued, Jacques Marquette formulated a plan to explore the body of water and to learn about the Indigenous p

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Prescription for Awe: In the debate between religion and science, wonder is what the doctor ordered.

      Dec 15, 2016

      Heads down, we plodded along a coastal path into an almost gale-force wind that came howling straight up the English Channel, driving the rain into our faces and making it hard to steal more than an occasional glance ahead of us to the west. Somewher

      14 min read

    • Article

      Mapping A Different Kind Of Bicycle Tour

      May 23, 2023

      Bicycle tours tend to prioritize exquisite landscapes, but since our ride is also a journalistic exercise, we needed to adopt a different philosophy of route-making.

      4 min read

    • Article

      NAVIGATING the UNKNOWN

      Jul 4, 2021

      NAVIGATING the UNKNOWN
      9 min read

    Reviews for The Promise of the Grand Canyon

    3/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words