<p>Are national parks playgrounds or sanctuaries or both? In Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Great Smokies, the Grand Canyon, the number of visitors increases yearly, and managing the parks wisely has become truly critical. Alfred Runte proposes, in the first comprehensive history of the national park idea, that to guide the future understand the social and cultural forces that created them. The book reproduces fifty-two photographs, many previously unpublished, illustrating the growth of the national park idea. Includes an extensive bibliography.</p>

National Parks: The American Experience

Travel

Alfred Runte

Food, Lodging & Transportation

Univ of Nebraska Pr

National Parks: The American Experience (Second Edition Revised)

University Of Nebraska Press

Interpretative history of the national parks system proposing the establishment of national parks evolved out of a need to fulfill cultural rather than environmental needs, and examining the problems of maintaining the character and integrity of parks.

Science & Math

Nature & Ecology

LYONS PRESS+

National Parks: The American Experience, 4th Edition

<p>Completely revised for its fourth edition, National Parks: The American Experience tells the highly engaging story of how Americans invented and expanded the concept of national parks. A prominent adviser to the Ken Burns Emmy Award-winning documentary, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," Alfred Runte is renowned as the nation's leading historian on the meaning and management of these treasured lands.  Lavishly illustrated with period photographs, including eight pages of color paintings, National Parks: The American Experience has never been more beautiful or profound.  This remains a stirring look into the lands that define America, from Yosemite and Yellowstone to wilderness Alaska.  This is how we got our parks, and yes, how we have occasionally failed them, and when doing so how we have failed ourselves.  "Civilization is the problem parks solve," Runte writes.  At times, the national parks may seem as imperfect as they are exceptional; the point is that they are all we will ever have.  Knowing that earlier America, and planning for the new America, still demands our humility to advance the best of both.</p>

History

Americas

Taylor Trade Publishing

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Books by Alfred Runte