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This chapter continues the discussion of the life of Robert Marshall. In the first two decades of the century, many Jews, native and foreign-born, shared in the growth opportunities available in America. In the 1920s, these same Jews witnessed a “closing of the gates” as prejudice reached new levels. Robert Marshall felt much of this increasing hostility. He possessed the resources, intelligence, and training required to enter mainstream American society, but in a culture of separation, opportunity did not always equate to easy access. Marshall was at once a forester, a politician, and an agent of modern American science. For him, nature became an arena of activity as he turned to the physical world to situate himself within American society and to support his vision for a progressive America.

This chapter focuses on the life of Robert Marshall. Marshall dedicated his career to expanding the application of the natural sciences, especially his field of forestry. He recognized the primary flaw in progressive conservation: emphasizing nature's use made all questions of nature's value economic. He pushed scientists to understand the larger implications and social significance of their work. Most Americans knew nature only through limited personal experience. But like Clarence King, Robert Marshall believed that scientific study provided a unified and more complete picture of social relations and of the importance of nature to social health. The ideal product of such study was the modern American, an individual who understood that better living came through intimate contact with the natural world. Broadcasting this message on a wide scale would occupy the rest of his life.

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the purpose of the book, which is to examine the working world of natural scientists, exploring how they used science within American life and, most importantly, illuminating the impact of natural science on American culture. Beginning with the conclusion of the Civil War and the creation of a recognizably modern America, and continuing forward to the emergence of environmentalism as a political force nearly a century later, the book explores the evolving internal paradigms and external forces influencing the design and purpose of American natural science. The chapter also considers the work of Clarence King, Robert Marshall, and Rachel Carson, representatives of the community of natural scientists who blended their work, understanding of politics, and concern for social welfare into a vision of a liberal, cooperative, and scientifically informed America.

This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It argues that nature continues to serve as a foundation for American political values, with natural science acting as guide. Key to its modern appeal is an understanding of science as an objective form of knowledge located within the authoritative natural world. The challenge for scientists and citizens alike is to recognize how much of our search for answers in the physical environment is not based on the ability of science to reveal what nature intended but is, rather, a necessary product of human relations in a social environment.

This chapter focuses on Utah, another Mountain state, using a case study of press coverage of the 1925 lynching of African American Robert Marshall. It analyzes early-twentieth-century race relations and a recent contentious debate over the public memory of racial lynching in a state historically dominated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons). Memphis journalist Ida B. Wells was the first to identify the underlying causes of lynching. In three long investigative pamphlets published between 1892 and 1900, she discussed how allegations of rape obscured the real reason behind the killings of black men: white rage over economic advances among a rising black middle class. Lynching has received considerable scholarly and popular attention since Wells' groundbreaking work.

This chapter talks about woman cartoonist Betty Swords, who was a professional humorist for over twenty-five years, starting in 1955. She sold her cartoons to the major magazine markets, including Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and Changing Times. Swords discovered the hostile side of humor after she had been cartooning for a dozen years or so. Women cartoonists are discriminated because of their ideas. According to Swords, “Women do not make jokes because they are the joke.” What is funny to a woman does not appeal to male editors, who tend to want women in the jokes as the butt of the humor. She sold several cartoons to Robert Marshall at Changing Times about a woman political candidate, making a difference by forcing people to recognize the ridiculousness of the objections to women candidates, helping the great increase in women elected in 1972.