| Michael Punke’s latest historical work, "Last Stand", is a fascinating look in to the life and legacy of one of the first true environmentalist in America, George Bird Grinnell.
Following the Civil War, Grinnell was determined to protect the land and specifically the bison in the West. Punke lets the reader know that the West was really won with Grinnell's creation of the conservation movement.
"Last Stand" opens with a bang: Punke leads with a chilling account of a hunter killing 107 buffalo without leaving his stand, setting the stage for his narrative about the death of the American West. It is a great read, even if you do not consider yourself a reader of historical accounts.
Michael Punke, a former partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm, is an adjunct professor in the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana. "Last Stand" received a National Outdoor Book Awards, Honorable Mention for 2007.
From "Last Stand", chapter one, Wild and Wooly:
"The party started from New Haven late in June, bound for a West that was then really wild and wooly.
—George Bird Grinnell, Memories
"As a young George Bird Grinnell contemplated his future, the path of least resistance seemed to flow naturally toward a position as a captain of finance in a world ruled by the class to which he was born. Certainly this was the direction that his father and mother would push. Instead Grinnell would one day rise to challenge the foundational tenets on which his world had been built."
Meg Sampson is responsible for marketing at Fact & Fiction, now part of the Bookstore at the University of Montana.
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