Rediscovering national parks in the spirit of John Muir / Michael Frome.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frome, Michael, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Frome, Michael.

Muir, John, 1838-1914--Influence.

Muir, John.

Muir, John, 1838-1914.

National parks and reserves--Conservation and restoration--United States.

National parks and reserves.

National parks and reserves--United States--History.

Environmental conditions.

Nature conservation.

National parks and reserves--Government policy.

Conservation and restoration.

United States.

History.

National parks and reserves--Government policy--United States.

Nature conservation--United States.

Conservationists--United States--Biography.

Conservationists.

United States--Environmental conditions.

United States--Description and travel.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 309 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City : The University of Utah Press, [2015]

Summary:

"As a journalist, advocate, and professor, Michael Frome has spent decades engaged with conservation topics and has taken particular interest in America's national parks. He draws on this experience and knowledge to address what remains to be done in order to truly value and preserve these special places. Part memoir, part history, and part broadside against those who would diminish this heritage, Rediscovering National Parks in the Spirit of John Muir, through thoughtful reflections and ruminations, bears witness to the grandeur of our parks and to the need for a renewed sense of appreciation and individual responsibility for their care. In recollections of his encounters and conversations with key people in national park history, Frome discusses park politics, conflicts between use and preservation, and impacts of commercialization. He proposes a dedicated return to the true spirit in which the parks were established, in the manner of John Muir. He advocates maintaining these lands as wild sanctuaries, places where we can find inspiration, solitude, silence, balance, and simplicity, reminding us why we must preserve our national treasures and why we need to connect with the deeper values they hold"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Feet on the ground, eyes to the sky

Institutions breed conformity and compliance

My friends Harvey and Carsten, superlative park advocates

A superintendent's view of park priorities

"Politics is the problem, and getting worse"

I discover national parks, the parks discover me

Parkways, monuments, and memorials are national parks, too

John Muir comes into my life

No glaciers or geysers in the Everglades, but...

Tough to make a living, tougher to say something that counts

I become an author

Horace Albright : portrait of a conserver

Drury in defense of dinosaur

Hetch Hetchy again, now in Utah

Whose woods these are

On becoming a columnist

Speaking at Yale

The timid, the hesitant, the compromisers have failed

"Parks are for people" makes the Great Society look good

Building an empire through political patronage

Saving the Smokies

"Wilderness is my lifestyle"

The voice crying in the wilderness

Those endless compromises really do not help

Fire, changing land into landscape

Yellowstoneheritage or Honkytonk?

Concession power

Charles Eames had a word for it

The outcasts felt pain, and found salvation

A Christmas gift, anything but small

Muir found the icy wilderness "unspeakably pure and sublime"

Tourist boomers like action and a good show

The scientist who speaks from conscience pays a price

The Vail call to arms, unheard

"Their labors were not in vain"

Could my words possibly make any difference?

When a whistleblower "goes public"

Citizens challenge the Parkway Center

Horace Albright typing on his aged portable

The coalition brings its experience to the table

Artists and photographers direct us to a sense of place and of spirit

Brower, without fear or favor

Failing to safeguard the sacred, ancient, and fragile

Sometimes rules and regulations are bent and broken

Going home.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781607814184

1607814188

OCLC:

915118427