DURHAM, N.C. – Historian Patricia N. Limerick, whose acclaimed books on the American West have reshaped modern views of frontier life, will give a free public talk, “The Fight for the Forefathers: Who Owns Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold?,” on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 91.

The 4:30 lecture in Love Auditorium at the Levine Science Research Center is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

The talk is sponsored by the Forest History Society, and Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and the Department of History as part of the Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History.

Limerick is a professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder and chair of the board of the Center of the American West. The recipient of a 1995-2000 MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “genius grant,” she is widely hailed for debunking many long-held myths about how the West was won, and focusing more attention on the roles of women, minorities and the environment.

Her meticulously researched books, including Something in the Soil, Desert Passages and her 1987 landmark, The Legacy of Conquest, have influenced a generation of historians, filmmakers and novelists. Larry McMurtry, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove, said Limerick “is an original, learned, passionate writer. Everything she writes about the history of the American West deserves attention.” Filmmaker Ken Burns hired her as an advisor for his documentary, “The West.”

In her talk at Duke, Limerick will examine how various interest groups invoke the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the “father” of our national parks and national forests, and Aldo Leopold, the “father” of wildlife ecology, to advance their groups’ views and objectives. She’ll discuss how this has affected the guiding principles of conservation over the years, and will conclude with a discussion of the compatibility of democracy with conservation.

An award-winning teacher and popular speaker, Limerick has long been a champion of making serious scholarship accessible and relevant to nonacademic audiences. In 1993, she issued a call to action to her fellow historians in an article, “Dancing with Professors: The Trouble with Academic Prose,” in the New York Times Book Review.

For more information about the lecture, contact Steven Anderson at the Forest History Society at (919) 682-9319, or visit the Forest History Society’s Web site at .