Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-231) and index.

1. Introduction. How do species become endangered? -- Human impact on natural selection -- Major protection measures : The Endangered Species Act of 1973 ; International protection measures ; Types of protection -- Species preservation in poor countries -- New threats to protected wildlife under GATT -- Controversies surrounding the ESA : The problem of defining species ; Endangered wildlife versus property rights and jobs -- Mixed messages from Congress and the courts: two case studies : The darters ; The northern spotted owl -- Endangered and threatened species lists -- 2. Chronology -- 3. Biographical sketches. Edward Abbey -- Rachel Louise Carson -- George Catlin -- J.N. (Ding) Darling -- John David Dingell, Jr. -- William O. Douglas -- David Etnier -- Eric Forsman -- Dian Fossey -- Jane Goodall -- George Bird Grinnell -- Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel -- John Fletcher Lacey -- Aldo Leopold -- James Lovelock -- Warren Grant Magnuson -- George Grant Magnuson -- George Perkins Marsh -- John Muir -- Gifford Pinchot -- Theodore Roosevelt -- Henry David Thoreau -- 4. U.S. legislation and international treaties. U.S. federal legislation : Early legislation ; The Endangered Species Act and its amendments ; Recent legislative history ; Representative bills ; Related laws -- Selected state legislation -- Information about federal laws : Print resources ; Internet resources -- International treaties and conventions -- 5. U.S. endangered species litigation. Sources of the law -- General Endangered Species Act cases : U.S. Supreme Court ; U.S. Court of Appeals ; State courts -- Spotted owl cases : U.S. Supreme Court ; U.S. Court of Appeals ; U.S. District Court -- 6. Organizations. General organizations ; Organizations concerned with specific species or groups of organisms -- 7. Print resources. Books : General biology ; Endangered species ; Historical geology and the history of the Earth ; Extinction ; Biodiversity ; Conversation ; Ecology ; Radical ecology ; Domestication ; Legal issues: United States and international ; Novels ; Juvenile -- Federal publications ; Law school reviews -- 8. Nonprint resources. Databases -- The Internet : Laws and legal issues ; Directories ; General -- CD-roms -- Computer simulation programs/virtual reality : Selected models/simulations ; Ecological simulations -- Selected audio- and videotapes -- Glossary -- Appendix: Geological timeline.