Reviews for America's National Park System: The Critical Documents

The average rating for America's National Park System: The Critical Documents based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-02-05 00:00:00 Jeremy Gross Likely one of the best, if not the best, compilation of documents written about the national parks. This composite of congressional acts, executive orders, letters from top National Park Service and other federal personnel, and reports from numerous sources, among other documents, shows the shaping of national parks from the mid 19th century to present. Beginning each section is a well-written introduction to each era as expertly broken up by the editor, who does a tremendous job with this book. Although I did not read all the acts, reports, and letters, as I suspect many people will, as its quite dense on legal and scientific language in spots, I skimmed the book and read many of the passages, including all the introductions, and many of the more general policy overviews. Anyone who admires the national park system would likely benefit from perusing this book, and could likely find some entries that would intrigue them.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-05 00:00:00 Douglas Roman McEvoy's thorough, well-researched, and not at all interesting examination of fishery issues in California that led to the passage of the 1976 FCMA constitutes a good case application of Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" problem. In short, the book presents a compelling but not especially sophisticated argument for increased sensitivity to environmental problems: brute self-interest will lead only to devastation. I'm really amazed at how readable this book was, given its subject matter (McEvoy himself says that he is following Robert Wiebe's injunction to write in simple prose so that laypeople can avail themselves of scholarly research).