This Land

How Cowboys, Capitalism and Corruption are Ruining the American West

De: Christopher Ketcham

Narrado por: Christopher Ketcham

A hard-hitting look at the battle now raging over the fate of the public lands in the American West - and a plea for the protection of these last wild places

The public lands of the western United States comprise some 450 million acres of grassland, steppe land, canyons, forests, and mountains. It's an American commons, and it is under assault as never before.

Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the listener on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons. Ketcham begins in Utah, revealing the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, and exposing rampant malfeasance in the federal land management agencies, who have been compromised by the profit-driven livestock and energy interests they are supposed to regulate. He then turns to the broad effects of those corrupt politics on wildlife. He tracks the Department of Interior's failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act - including its stark betrayal of protections for the grizzly bear and the sage grouse - and investigates the destructive behavior of US Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry. Along the way, Ketcham talks with ecologists, biologists, botanists, former government employees, whistleblowers, grassroots environmentalists, and other citizens who are fighting to protect the public domain for future generations.

This Land is a colorful muckraking journey - part Edward Abbey, part Upton Sinclair - exposing the rot in American politics that is rapidly leading to the sell-out of our national heritage. The book ends with Ketcham's vision of ecological restoration for the American West: freeing the trampled, denuded ecosystems from the effects of grazing, enforcing the laws already in place to defend biodiversity, allowing the native species of the West to recover under a fully implemented Endangered Species Act, and establishing vast stretches of public land where there will be no development at all, not even for recreation.

Cover Photo courtesy of TWIG Media/Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

©2019 Christopher Ketcham (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"As Christopher Ketcham says so eloquently in these pages, the vast public lands are perhaps America's greatest legacy, a landscape of the scale necessary to help preserve the diversity of life on a hot planet in a tough century. That's why we need to pay such attention to the stories he tells of the threats they face." (Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?)

"Christopher Ketcham is a marvelously fresh and forceful voice, one unaffected by the squishy language and languid resistance of our grotesquely compromised (and well-funded) environmental organizations. Instructive and swiftly, smartly written, this book about the pillage and poisoning of our public lands reinvigorates writing as a force for outrage and change at the same time as it returns us to the clear-headed, big-hearted zeal of classic environmental works." (Joy Williams, author of The Florida Keys)

"As potent in its way as Silent Spring. This book will open your eyes to the greed and abuse destroying our public lands. Better yet, it will make you angry." (T. C. Boyle, author of Outside Looking In)

History and more

If you have, or will spend any time in the west you need to listen to this book. Incredible, lyrical and in many ways depressing.

Probably the best book I have listened to

This book is excellent, both in its content and its narration. I highly recommend it for anyone who cares about our public lands. It is well organized and gives the reader a good understanding of the dysfunctional dynamics brought about by our exploitative economic system. Anyone who cares deeply about the plight of wild animals would benefit from listening. Especially meaningful for those of us who live in the western United States but relevant to all. Very well narrated by the author.

Capitalism & Environmentalism Do Not Mix!

Seriously dismayed by things I’ve learned in this book. The battle against those that are destroying our public lands is uphill and long. I now believe it will take the destruction of capitalism to achieve victory.

Very good material, well written and curated, but self defeating in milquetoast performance

The material is strong, the research believable, Unfortunately the choice of narrator, the author himself I believe, is unconscionable as the narration, which is lamenting, weeping, pathetic, turns the very fence sitters that need to be convinced away in embarrassment. Was Redford approached? Did he refuse? Cost too much? The book would be so much more effective through a strong resonant voice of leadership equivalent to the very western intonations to which he is so averse. I will cease to listen through the rest and instead read the book. Unfortunately, like that which can’t be unseen, this may not be unheard. Passion can be expressed with the strength of a leader as well as the embarrassment of a victim.

Let him who has ears

Wake Up.....listen to the Pando it speaks softly and maybe for the last time

Attention Americans: read this impressive book!

This Land is extraordinarily well-written; I breezed through it and barely noticed what time it was. I felt like I was sitting around a campfire, listening to the author tell stories about the West that was promised to us upon the creation of public lands in the U.S. I barely knew about our country's public lands, and that they consist of far more than a handful of national parks. So, not only was this book enjoyable, it was also a learning experience. And what I learned made me want to protect our land from greedy interests who would tear it apart for profit. I read some other reviews that say the author is a Trump supporter. I read another that called him a socialist. I'm not sure where they got that from and suspect they didn't read the book. Ketcham is pro-public land and pro-nature. That's what I gathered from the book.

Every American should read "This Land". We all have a stake in this issue, from wealthy to poor, young and old. Let Ketcham fill you in on what the West holds for you, and what we should be doing to protect it.

An absolute must read

As someone who has walked from Mexico to Oregon I can personally attest to the destruction cows have reeked on the landscape and natural water sources, how clear cutting has scared the mountainsides with large geometric patterns of barren stumps and dirt. Listen to Ketcham. He tells the truth. Get this book.

Important read and very well written.

Written in such a way that these important issues stay engaging throughout. highly recommend this text for any citizen of the US, and anyone who claim to love nature, the environment, or the law.

One of the best books I have read in years

This book is beautifully written and the production, read by the author, carries with it a depth of feeling and emotion that align with the gravity of the book and the prose with which it was written. This book should be required reading and is one of the most important books I have read about the environment, the West and protecting public lands. I can’t recommend it more highly.

Very well read. Thoroughly researched.

Our public lands are on death row, and now we can explore some of  the details of a corrupt and greed-driven prosecution, moved by hypocrites and zealots who subvert our legal system and pervert the language of scripture to justify their personal gain, at the expense of our sacred public trust, and hopefully all just in a nick of time. These gloomy machinations are rolling away as we read on.


And I hope this is just the opening volley from this author, the Helen Prejean of our public lands and the endangered fauna that are facing down a certain death sentence. More needs to be dragged into the light by this dedicated author, who has doggedly investigated and so eloquently written on our behalf many heretofore unheralded facts and facets thus far. So please give him 5 stars everone, it's the best way to ensure another volume will be forthcoming.