One of America’s most significant architects of conservation and the environment, Stewart Udall, comes to life in this environmental biography. Perhaps no other public official or secretary of the interior has ever had as much success in environmental protection, natural resource conservation, and outdoor recreation opportunity creation as Udall. A progressive Mormon, born and raised in rural Arizona, Udall served as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior under the presidential cabinets of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1961-1969. During these eight years, he established dozens of new national park units and national wildlife refuges, wrote the Endangered Species Preservation Act, lobbied for unpolluted water, and offered ways to beautify urban spaces and bring the impoverished out of poverty. Later in life, he continued as an advocate for conservation and the environment, specifically by proposing solutions to the challenges associated with global warming and the widespread use of oil.

What can we learn from this farsighted individual?

In a day and age of partisan politics, poor congressional approval ratings, and global warming and climate change, this captivating biography offers a profound and historical record into Udall’s life-long devotion to environmental issues he cared about most deeply—issues more relevant today than they were then. Intimate moments include Udall’s learning of the Kennedy assassination, his push for civil rights for African Americans, his meeting in the U.S.S.R. with Nikita Khrushchev—the first Kennedy cabinet member to do so—and his warnings about global warming 50 years prior to Al Gore’s Nobel Prize-winning film.

Scott Einberger was an environmental historian and public lands enthusiast. He lived in Washington, DC.

"With Distance in His Eyes is an impressive dive into the life and times of a Western native son. That it is an unabashed valentine is something that most Santa Feans will welcome and eagerly embrace."
—Santa Fe New Mexican

“With Distance in His Eyes describes a truly amazing record of effort on behalf of the American people to conserve and protect public resources and care for their needs as they were served by the vast reach of the Department of Interior. This 'small' 280-page book is a summary of Udall’s efforts on behalf of the environment from 1960-’68 and beyond.”
—National Parks Traveler

"With Distance in His Eyes offers a concise environmental biography that will appeal to those primarily interested in Udall’s conservation legacy, providing a useful primer to the issues and concerns underpinning the environmental movement during the 1960s, and the book should find a ready audience in undergraduate classrooms."
—Environmental History

"This book has value in recalling a major environmental champion—something sorely needed in today's political climate." 
—Western Historical Quarterly