National Parks: The American Experience, 4th Edition - Softcover

Alfred Runte

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1589794753 ISBN 13: 9781589794757

Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

An internationally recognized expert on America's national parks, Alfred Runte is based in Seattle, Washington. He was recently an adviser to the Ken Burns PBS documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea and appeared in all six episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series. Runte has also been a guest on Nightline, The Today Show, 48 Hours, the History and Travel channels, and speaks frequently in public forums on the need to protect our parks. His other books include Allies of the Earth: Railroads and the Soul of Preservation, Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness, and Trains of Discovery: Railroads and the Legacy of Our National Parks, now in its fifth edition. In April 2011, Runte was elected to membership in the College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at Illinois State University (his master's degree institution) "in recognition of exemplary achievement" as a teacher and public scholar. He also holds a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Review

Like John Muir, Al Runte has felt the siren call of our saved—and sacred—places, and, like John Muir, he has found a way to share their glories with power and poetry. This is a sensitive, well-written history of our land and the complicated people who call it home. (Ken Burns )

Alfred Runte brilliantly demonstrates why he is considered one of America's preeminent environmental historians. Not only does National Parks sing with inspiration, but it is the most trustworthy synthesis scholars have on the American preservation movement. Everybody should read this marvelous study. Highly recommended! (Douglas Brinkley )

Congratulations to Al Runte on the fourth edition of National Parks: The American Experience. Al understands and captures not only the history of our national parks but also their importance to the United States and the world. From Al's childhood experiences in national parks to all the research he has done on their history and value, his fourth edition captures why our national parks are America's best idea. (Fran P. Mainella )

Having had a role in the beginnings of this important book, it is an honor to celebrate its fourth edition. Al Runte reminds us how dramatically the valuation of national parks has changed in little more than a century. Read it and you will learn why national parks can be considered a distinctively American idea, indeed a contribution of our nation to world civilization. (Professor Emeritus Roderick Frazier Nash )

Alfred Runte gives a comprehensive discussion of America's parks. National Parks is a choice and solidly recommended addition to natural history collections. (Midwest Book Review )

About this edition

• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1589794753
• ISBN 13: 9781589794757
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 344