The wild east : a biography of the Great Smoky Mountains / Margaret Lynn Brown. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Margaret Lynn.

Series:

New perspectives on the history of the South

New perspectives on the history of the South The wild east

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human ecology--Great Smoky Mountains National Park (N.C. and Tenn.).

Human ecology.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (N.C. and Tenn.)--History.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (N.C. and Tenn.).

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (N.C. and Tenn.)--Environmental conditions.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 457 p. ) ill., map ;

Place of Publication:

Gainesville : University Press of Florida, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The Wild East explores the social, political, and environmental changes in the Great Smoky Mountains during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although this national park is most often portrayed as a triumph of wilderness preservation, Margaret L. Brown concludes that the largest forested region in the eastern United States is actually a re-created wilderness, a product of restoration and even manipulation of the land."

"In the 1970s, Brown writes, the Smokies faced many of the consequences of these management decisions. Major crises with brook trout, black bears, and exotic species pushed park officials toward a greater regard for ecology. At the same time, scientists trained during the environmental movement foraged through the land's history seeking to re-create the look of the landscape before human settlement. Park management continues to waffle between these shifting views of wilderness, negotiating the often contradictory mission of promoting tourism and ensuring preservation."--Jacket.

Contents:

1. Forest economies

2. A lumberman's dream

3. Scenery in the eminent domain

4. Landscaping a park out of the wilderness

5. A lake in the national defense

6. Drive-in wilderness

7. Bearly managing tourons

8. Still not a wilderness

9. In search of the wild east

10. Global threats, local conspiracy theories.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [413]-438) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-8130-2226-6