California State University, Northridge

PRESS RELEASE

April 1, 1996

Contact: Stacy Peterson,
Asst. to the Director of News and Information,
(818) 885-2130

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORIAN FEATURED AT LECTURE

Donald E. Worster, a leading environmental historian and contributor to New Western history, will deliver the annual W.P. Whitsett Lecture on April 12 at 8 p.m. at Cal State Northridge in the University Club, 18111 Nordhoff Street. A reception at 5:30 p.m. and a dinner at 6:30 p.m. precedes the lecture. The event is sponsored by the Whitsett Endowment, the Cal State Northridge History Association, Phi Alpha Theta and the Whitsett Committee of the Department of History.

Worster will present "Landscape Hero; John Wesley Powell and the Colorado Plateau," reflecting his research of the 19th century scientist, explorer and conservationist.

Worster's presentation highlights the anniversary celebration of the W.P. Whitsett Lectures, which have featured prominent interpreters of California and the American West.

He wrote "Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s," which received the Bancroft Prize, and "The Wealth of Nature and the Ecological Imagination" and "Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity and the Growth of the American West," both nominated for Pulitzer Prizes

Tickets are $20 and reservations can be made by calling Tom Maddux, history department chair, (818) 885- 3566.