Daniel Nelson

Author or editor of nearly a dozen books and many scholarly articles, Daniel Nelson is a retired history professor whose interests have shifted from economic and labor history to environmental issues and conservation - land preservation, parks, and wildlife in particular. He has written about parks and wildlife refuges in Alaska and the origins of the landmark Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. A biography of John F. Seiberling, an instrumental figure in the Alaska legislation and the development of the Wilderness Preservation System greatly extnded the Alaska research. Nelson's most recent book, Nature's Burdens: Conservation and American Politics, the Reagan Era to the Present, traces the tortured history of American conservation from the 1980's to the end of the Obama Administration.