Author, lawyer, Yale University doctoral candidate and historian Eric Rutkow digs deep into American history to show how trees were essential to the early years of the republic and indivisible from the country’s rise as both an empire and a civilization. He will share stories set in New England and beyond, in which trees—as symbols of liberty, community, and civilization—are perhaps the loudest silent figures in America’s complicated history. Early presidents, conservationists, politicians, and politics resurface alongside the trees and forests that supported independence and fueled this country’s westward expansion. Eric Rutkow’s book, American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation (Scribner, 2012), will be available for purchase and signing. The event takes place Thursday, November 6, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, and is $5 for Arboretum members, $10 for nonmembers. Register at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1387&DayPlannerDate=11/6/2014.
