David R. Brower, the founder of both Friends of the Earth and the Earth Island Institute, has long been widely considered to be one of the most radical and effective environmentalists in the United States.

Joining the Sierra Club in 1933, Brower became a member of its Board of Directors in 1941 and then its first executive director, serving from 1952 to 1969. In this position, Brower helped transform the group from a regional to a national force, seeing the club's membership expand from 2,000 to 77,000 and playing a key role in the formation of the Sierra Club Foundation. Under Brower's leadership the Sierra Club, among other achievements, successfully opposed the Bureau of Reclamation's plans to build dams in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado as well as in Arizona's Grand Canyon, but lost the fight to preserve...