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William B. Meyer


William B. Meyer’s essay on how the dismal swamps of the nineteenth century became the priceless wetlands of the twentieth appeared in the May/June issue.

Articles by this Author

Wallfare, February/March 1996 | Vol. 47, No. 1
“GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS,” wrote Robert Frost. But he may have been closer to the mark with another line: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”
This isn’t the first time a Virginia governor has found himself embroiled in controversy about the commercialization of a Civil War site
American attitudes toward them have taken a 180-degree turn over the last century—and so have the battles they provoke
For more than two hundred years, Americans have tried to change the weather by starting fires, setting off explosions, cutting trees, even planning to divert the Gulf Stream. The question now is not how to do it, but whether to do it at all.
…And what’s more, the planet’s highly civilized inhabitants live together in perfect harmony. So argued an eminent astronomer named Percival Lowell, and for decades tens of thousands of Americans believed him.