Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bones of contention: the American incognitum and the discovery of extinction -- Paradise lost: unraveling the mysteries of insular species -- Sounding the alarm about continent-wide extinction -- Nationalism, nostalgia, and the campaign to save the bison -- Going global: the American committee and the first inventory of extinction -- The Latin American turn: nature protection in the Western Hemisphere -- Enter ecology: preserving nature's living laboratory -- Reconsidering raptors during the interwar years -- Salvation through science?: the first life-history studies of endangered species -- "The nation's first responsibility": saving endangered species in the age of ecology.