David S. Patterson

Now Available!

 

In a broad sweep of Middle Atlantic and U.S. history, David tells the absorbing story of three generations of the Pinchot family, a wealthy dynasty, whose members were involved in cultural initiatives and reform movements that humanized America.

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His book revives and revises our understanding of Gifford Pinchot, America’s first professionally trained forester, a central figure of the nation’s early environmental movement, Theodore Roosevelt’s closest confidant, and twice elected governor of Pennsylvania. It also brings prominently to life for the first time other family members: James Pinchot, the father, a generous art patron and his involvement in several important cultural initiatives; his wife Mary, who communicated the parents' values of serving the public good to their children; Gifford’s brother Amos, a gifted political writer and activist for civil liberties and peace; and their sister Nettie, a noted humanitarian during the Great War.

 

The last part of The Pinchots gives special attention to the turbulent lives of Amos’s three beautiful daughters, Rosamond, Mary, and Tony.

 

Written in a clear, narrative style, The Pinchots family saga, involves wealth accumulation, romances, progressive reform and the New Deal in Pennsylvania and nationally, and responses to America’s three foreign wars, but is also filled with psychological tension and tragedy, including a bank scandal, death by disease, divorces, suicides, even unsolved murder.

 

Also woven into the storyline are the close relationships between several Pinchots and the Roosevelts (Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor) and later the Kennedys. David’s book especially attracts readers interested in environmental history and citizen activism and also appeals to general audiences wanting to learn more about the nation’s extraordinary historical transformation, culturally and politically, from the Gilded Age to modern America.

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Sunbury Press has published The Pinchots: A Family Saga.  It can be ordered directly from the Press or from Amazon.