T. H. Watkins

One of the foremost chroniclers of the American West, T. H. Watkins was an editor at American Heritage for six years and a long-time contributor. He also served as Editor of Wilderness magazine for fifteen years, and as Wallace Stegner Distinguished Professor of Western American Studies at Montana State University.

Watkins is perhaps best known for Righteous Pilgrim, a 1990 biography of Harold L. Ickes, the crusading secretary of the interior for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which was a National Book Award finalist. He also wrote The Hungry Years, The Great Depression: America in the 1930s, and two dozen other books.

Articles by

Watkins

Articles by this Author

National Park, May/June 1998 | Vol. 49, No. 3

Wondering which are overrated (none) or underrated (all)

A Signature On The Land, September 1994 | Vol. 45, No. 5

The naturalist ALDO LEOPOLD not only gave the wilderness idea its most persuasive articulation; he offered a way of thinking that turned the entire history of land use on its head

Father Of The Forests, February/March 1991 | Vol. 42, No. 1

Ninety years ago a highborn zealot named Gifford Pinchot knew more about woodlands than any man in America. What he did about them changed the country we live in and helped define environmentalism.

A Heritage Preserved, April/May 1982 | Vol. 33, No. 3

Fort Adobe

Memory’s Storehouse, February/March 1982 | Vol. 33, No. 2

Corncrib Schooling, October/november 1981 | Vol. 32, No. 6

Trust And Civilization, August/september 1981 | Vol. 32, No. 5

A HERITAGE PRESERVED

Bank Holdup, June/July 1981 | Vol. 32, No. 4

Rescuing The First Resource, April/May 1981 | Vol. 32, No. 3

A Heritage Preserved, February/March 1981 | Vol. 32, No. 2

MIAMI DECO

A Heritage Preserved, December 1981 | Vol. 33, No. 1

History by a Dam Site

A Heritage Preserved, October/November 1980 | Vol. 31, No. 6

Arkansas saves fragments of the rich but distant past.

Boston - Birth And Rebirth, August/September 1980 | Vol. 31, No. 5

A Heritage Preserved, June/July 1980 | Vol. 31, No. 4

SAVING FACE

Listening, April/may 1980 | Vol. 31, No. 3

Eyewitness, February/March 1980 | Vol. 31, No. 2

For The Record, December 1980 | Vol. 32, No. 1

A HERITAGE PRESERVED

Thinking Little, October/November 1979 | Vol. 30, No. 6

The Death House, June/July 1979 | Vol. 30, No. 4

The Brotherhood Of The Mountains, April/May 1979 | Vol. 30, No. 3

Maligned and misunderstood throughout much of their history, the Penitentes of the American Southwest have nevertheless given their people a sense of community and spiritual security. But for how much longer?

Capital Caravanserai, April/May 1979 | Vol. 30, No. 3

If Beale Street Could Talk, February/March 1979 | Vol. 30, No. 2

A Heritage Preserved, December 1979 | Vol. 31, No. 1

The history of carousels goes ’round and ’round…

A Legacy Of Hands, October/November 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 6

The hands of Pueblo potter Maria Martinez have reached back across more than seven hundred years of history to create pottery that is now proudly displayed in museums and private collections all over the world.

“Chief Satanta, I Presume?”, October/November 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 6

Henry Morion Stanley, who later found Dr. Livingstone, reports the Treaty of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, October, 1867

The Purloined Past, August/September 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 5

Sticky-fingered specialists have stolen thousands of documents from every size and sort of historical archive.

On The Air, Forever, June/July 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 4

The Museum of Broadcasting brings back the experience of radio, memories of laughter, drama, fantasy and hope.

Out of the Shadow of Ruin, April/May 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 3

Pride lies at the heart of efforts to renovate a historic district in Cincinnati.

Marking Time, February/March 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 2

Thousands of Native American pictographs and petroglyphs are at risk from vandalism amd theft.

Headin’ for the (Almost) Last Roundup, February/March 1978 | Vol. 29, No. 2

Organizers held an old-fashioned cattle drive to commemorate the cowboy's role in winning the West, but, as they say, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

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One of the foremost chroniclers of the American West, T. H. Watkins was an editor at American Heritage for six years and a long-time contributor. He also served as Editor of Wilderness magazine for fifteen years, and as Wallace Stegner Distinguished Professor of Western American Studies at Montana State University.