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Hardin (Garrett) oral history
OH 46
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Title: Garrett Hardin oral history
Identifier/Call Number: OH 46
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
3 linear feet
(3 document boxes, 18 audiocassettes)
Creator:
Hardin, Garrett James, 1915-2003
Creator:
Russell, David (David E.)
Date: 1983
Abstract: The collection contains background material, audiocassettes, and transcripts of interviews conducted by David E. Russell with
Garrett Hardin, in 1983.
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
[Identification of Item], Garrett Hardin oral history, OH 46. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
UCSB Oral History Program, 1983.
Preliminary arrangement and description by Special Collections staff; latest version, D. Tambo, Aug. 10, 2015.
Garrett Hardin was a professor of Human Ecology at the University of California Santa Barbara. He was a writer and lecturer
concerned with the problems of overpopulation, and was best known for his essay
The Tragedy of the Commons (Science, 1968).
Born in Dallas, Texas, in 1915, Hardin contracted polio at the age of four, which left him with a crippled right leg. Nonetheless,
he excelled in swimming, as well as theater and academics. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of
Chicago in 1936, and a Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University in 1941. He worked at Stanford until 1946, when he became
an assistant professor at UCSB. He remained at UCSB until he retired with the title of professor emeritus in 1978.
Hardin's publications began with a textbook entitled Biology: Its Human Implications (1949-1978). His best known writings
on overpopulation include:
Nature and Man's Fate (1959),
Population, Evolution and Birth Control (1964), and
Managing the Commons (1977). Hardin also wrote about the ethics of birth control and abortion in books such as:
Birth Control (1970),
Exploring New Ethics for Survival (1972),
Stalking the Wild Taboo (1973),
Mandatory Motherhood: The True Meaning of "Right to Life" (1974),
The Limits of Altruism (1977), and
Promethean Ethics: Living with Death, Competition and Triage (1980). His more recent books include:
Filters against Folly (1985),
Living within Limits (1993),
The Immigration Dilemma (1995), and
The Ostrich Factor (1999).
Garrett Hardin's many awards include the UCSB Faculty Research Lectureship (1968), and numerous honorary degrees. He was a
visiting professor at several universities across the country, including the University of California Berkeley, Cornell University,
and the University of Notre Dame.
Garrett Hardin died at age 88 in Santa Barbara, California, in 2003.
The collection contains background material, audiocassettes, and transcripts of interviews conducted by David E. Russell,
with Garrett Hardin, in 1983. The interviews cover Garrett Hardin's life, from early childhood through his academic career,
concluding at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The finished version of the oral history is entitled
Loitering with Intent: The Life and Times of Garrett Hardin. Oral history conducted by David E. Russell, Santa Barbara: Davidson Library, Oral History Program, 1983. 526 pages.
Garrett Hardin Papers (UArch FacPap 14), and University Archives: Bio Files. University of California, Santa Barbara, Arts
and Lectures Records.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Transcripts
Audiocassettes
Interviews
Overpopulation
Environmental policy
Birth control
College teachers -- California -- Santa Barbara
Authors, American
Biology
Natural resources
Oral history
Environmental protection
Human ecology