The National Parks: America's Best Idea Book

This may appear to be just a "coffee table" book, but it's much more than that. This is a comprehensive history of our national parks, from the first molecule of an idea right up to the present.
I learned about many of the key figures here and there in my university degree program. This book pulled it all together for me chronologically, so I could appreciate each person's sacrifices and contributions within the context of the emerging national park system.

I've been a user and a lover of our national parks since early childhood. I've visited nearly all of the parks and monuments in the Western U.S. and worked a few summers in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. So I'm going to get sappy and mushy here (fair warning!) and say that my heart really did swell with gratitude as I read about the tireless determination of these men and women. Amid great opposition, they worked to set aside our national treasures.
You've heard the names: John Muir, Stephen Mather, Horace Albright, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Laurence Rockefeller, Olaus, Adolph, and Mardy Murie, and too many others too mention. Mather and the Rockefellers spent millions of their own dollars buying up property to donate, anticipating national park status for those lands. What a legacy!

The history also includes some of the more colorful characters who studied, visited, or tried to scam a profit from the national parks. These stories are sometimes entertaining, sometimes sad, and sometimes just plain hard to fathom with our 21st-Century mentality.

Of course, the book is full of stunning scenic photos and artwork, as well as a wealth of historical photos. I'm very passionate about what's left of our wild lands, so I'll be revisiting this book in the future.

**The book springs from a PBS special, for which there is a set of six DVDs. If you're too lazy to read the book, view the program and absorb some important history.