cover image War Against the Wolf: America's Campaign to Exterminate the Wolf

War Against the Wolf: America's Campaign to Exterminate the Wolf

. Voyageur Press (MN), $24.95 (495pp) ISBN 978-0-89658-264-4

The war began on a small scale within a few years of colonial settlement and eventually escalated to all the 48 contiguous states. Between 1870 and 1930, extermination of predators, especially wolves, became national policy carried out by a federal agency, the U.S. Biological Survey (now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). McIntyre (A Society of Wolves) has collected material from government reports, journals, newspaper and magazine articles and traditional Native American stories to illustrate our attitude toward wolves over three centuries. This anthology includes pieces by James Audubon, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Thompson Seton and Aldo Leopold-tales of outlaw wolves, hunters and trappers. These tales and agency reports are gruesome reading. In the last 50 years, attitudes have changed; with the passage of the Endangered Species Act (1973), wolves began to make their way back. The final section reports on their reintroduction in national parks. This is a fine companion to McIntyre's earlier books. Photos. (June)