Abstract

In this study, I argue that the environmental advocacy of Alexander Wilson (1766-1813), a natural historian in early America, was primarily responsible for introducing a humbler, less purely anthropocentric, somewhat more bio-centric ethic to the American public of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I am most interested in Wilson’s role of that I call “environmental advocate,” a nature writer who shows his admiration for the natural world and advocates the protection of nature. Most of this study is devoted towards examining how Wilson in his natural history writings introduces many proto-ecological ideas, advocates the conservation of nature to the public, and thereby initiates a more ethical relationship between humanity and the rest of the biotic community.