Descriptive Summary
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography / Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: Garrett Hardin papers
Dates: 1938-2003
Bulk Dates: 1970-1999
Collection number: Uarch FacPap 14
Creator:
Hardin, Garrett James, 1915-2003
Collection Size:
34.4 linear feet
(84 document boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Abstract: Comprised of 84 document boxes of Human Ecology Professor Garrett Hardin. Includes biographic and bibliographic information,
correspondence, extensive subject files used in his writing, UCSB teaching files, drafts of articles and manuscripts, and
photographs. Highlights include files related to his article "Tragedy of the Commons," abortion as a method of population
control, his participation in the anti-immigration movement, and his opposition to foreign aid.
Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special 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.
Preferred Citation
Garrett Hardin papers. Uarch FacPap 14, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Acquisition Information
Multiple donations by Garrett Hardin and family, 1972-1999, 2005.
Biography / Administrative History
Garrett Hardin was a professor of Human Ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, from 1946 to 1978. An author
and lecturer concerned with the ethics of overpopulation and population control, he is best known for his essay The Tragedy
of the Commons (Science, 1968). He wrote on and publicly supported birth control and eugenics (including abortion and sterilization),
conservation, ending of foreign aid, and restriction of immigration as solutions to overpopulation.
Hardin was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1915. He contracted polio at the age of four, leaving him dependent on crutches and,
in his later years, wheelchair bound. Nonetheless, he excelled in swimming, and from an early age was recognized for his
success in academics as well as theater and public speaking. 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 left
to take an assistant professor position at UCSB. He remained at UCSB until he retired with the title of professor emeritus
in 1978. He continued to actively write at his home in Santa Barbara, authoring several new books and articles as well as
revising existing titles. Hardin also remained active in the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
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). Other titles
published after his retirement include Filters against Folly (1985), Living Within Limits (1993), The Immigration Dilemma
(1995), and The Ostrich Factor (1999). At the time of his death Hardin was also working on two additional monographs: Saved
by Reason and another unidentified monograph.
Garrett Hardin's many awards include the UCSB Faculty Research Lectureship (1968), the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished
Emeriti Award (1997) for outstanding scholarly work after retirement, and many honorary degrees. He was a visiting professor
at many universities across the country, including the University of California Berkeley, Cornell University, and the University
of Notre Dame.
Garrett Hardin died in September 2003 at age 88 in Santa Barbara, California.
The Garrett Hardin Society maintains a webpage with extensive information about Hardin, his life, career, and a bibliography
of his writings. Go to: http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains the following series:
I. General. Includes biographical and bibliographical information. Also includes oral history from the Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR).
II. Correspondence. Mainly arranged by year. Some files for particular correspondents are separated. Correspondents include:
Paul Ehrlich, Joseph Fletcher, Dan McKinley, Gerry Mackey, Cordelia May, John Tanton, and Walter Youngquist.
III. Subject Files. Divided into numbered (by Hardin) and unnumbered files. Unnumbered files include significant files on
Abortion and the Environmental Fund. Numbered subject files were created and organized by Hardin, including essays, correspondence,
and notes, covering a wide range of topics about which he wrote.
IV. Teaching Files. From Biology 123 at UCSB, 1965-1977. Also see numbered subject file for 57.Education.
V. Writings. Handwritten and typewritten drafts, proofs, correspondence, and reviews of
monographs. Also includes drafts of articles, written versions of addresses, speeches, statements at hearings, sermons given
at the Unitarian Church. Other shorter pieces include book reviews, editorials, forewords, open letters, and letters to editors.
VI. Chronological Files. "Works In Progress", mainly unidentified manuscript drafts of articles and chapters of books, arranged
roughly chronologically; usually handwritten, with notes to the typist; some correspondence also interspersed, ca. 1963-2003.
VII. Notebooks. Includes notebooks starting from Hardin's Stanford years extending through the 1980s. Includes research notes
and writing drafts. Early notebooks include lecture notes and early contemplations on ethics and population.
VIII. Photographs. Primarily personal and publicity photos.
Monographs, chapters in anthologies, and other printed works are cataloged under the title of the work and can be searched
on Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog. Articles and book reviews can be search through our databases, such as Expanded
Academic ASAP and JSTOR.
Arrangement
Correspondence is primarily arranged chronologically and then alphabetically, except where Hardin had separated specific files
for particular correspondents. Hardin's arrangement is preserved in his subject files. His writing files are arranged alphabetically
by title.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Hardin, Garrett James, 1915-2003
Federation for American Immigration Reform
Abortion
Immigration opponents
Immigration issues in the United States
Overpopulation.
Human ecology.
Birth control.
Related Material
In UCSB Special Collections:
American Religions Collection, esp. groups dealing with issues such as abortion. ARC Mss 1.
Cloud [Preston] Papers, esp. regarding with natural resources and population control. UArch FacP 5.
Darwin/Evolution Collection. Mss 22.
Hardin Oral History (1983). OH 46
Stopes [Marie] / Birth Control Collection. Mss 122.
Public Information Office Biographical Files. UArch 11
Special Collection also has a number of books on subjects such as Darwin, evolution, population growth, the environment, birth
control, and abortion; a number of these were donated by Garrett Hardin. Several of Hardin's books are also available in the
circulating stacks.