He's an environmental historian at the University of Illinois at Springfield. McGregor became interested in Henry David Thoreau's ideas about nature while researching an article on biocentric history. His book, A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature, is the seventh in a series by different authors on the environment and the human condition edited by University of Illinois faculty and published by the university press. The following is edited from an interview by Peggy Boyer Long that airs in July on WUIS/ WIPA and other public radio stations.

Q. Thoreau's ecological world view does seem to be relevant to discussions that are underway about species protection, land use and protection of the rivers and lakes.

I think so. Environmental historians tend to see a tripartite world today. We have the traditional view, which says the earth is here for our use so let's exploit it. We have the conservationist view, which says the world is primarily for our use and we need to understand how nature operates so that we can use nature efficiently and guarantee that it will last. And then we have the preservationist view, which is that there are some things about nature which have a value independent of human beings, that the only thing we can do is set aside some parts of nature and say these things are inviolate.

And so whenever you get in any kind of argument about how to use a specific place — we use the Shawnee National Forest as a good example — you immediately get a three-sided argument going. And the poor bureaucrat is sitting in the middle.

How do we get out of that?

You can see elements of all three of those in [Thoreau's] writing. [But] I think the most profound thing that Thoreau gives to us is the idea that to use nature wrongly, to fail to understand how nature really works, is not so much a crime as it is a sin. A sin carries a moral ingredient. So to abuse nature — to make it a sin, rather than a crime — that's what will become necessary to our understanding.

That's where Thoreau was. 

What makes an environmentalist? A love of nature, first of all, a willingness to spend long hours out of doors, learning, refining, growing closer to nature's ways.... Above all, refuse to be ensnared by the intellectual traps of an economic system built on greed. Know that nature is vulnerable, that every person is apart of the nature that greed destroys."
A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature

The book reflects the culture of the turn-of-the-century Midwest, though idealized in intentionally humorous ways. It includes descriptions of Springfield, including the Leland Hotel, Herndon's, where Mrs. Lincoln shopped, and Miss Lou's bordello.

Illinois Issues July / August 1998 ¦ 37