About the Book
How should a national park be managed? Among all of the debates affecting America’s national parks, none has proved more enduring. Nor has any park, Alfred Runte reminds us, been in the spotlight more than Yosemite. Its cast of characters is especially rich, including James Mason Hutchings, Galen Clark, Frederick Law Olmsted, John Muir, David Brower, Joseph Grinnell, George M. Wright, and Ansel Adams. Not only was Yosemite the centerpiece of their careers, it was also the wellspring of their passion for nature. Now fully revised and updated, Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness continues their story, from Yosemite’s path-breaking establishment in 1864 as a grant to California, 1890 expansion into a national park, boundary reductions and loss of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, evolution of wildlife protections and science, management practices threatening Yosemite Valley, and the fight for wilderness to the present day.
About the Author :
The 2021 recipient of the Stewart L. Udall Award from the Western National Parks Association, ALFRED RUNTE is recognized as one of America’s leading environmental historians. Born and raised in Binghamton, New York, he received his B.A. from Harpur College of the State University of New York (now Binghamton University). Intrigued by the national parks, he headed west for graduate study, completing his M.A. at Illinois State University and Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Currently in its fifth edition at Lyons Press, his path-breaking book, National Parks: The American Experience, has been in print for 43 years. Interspersed with university teaching, Runte next turned to preparing Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness,including research over four seasons as a ranger naturalist in Yosemite Valley. The book led to guest appearances on Nightline, 48 Hours, The Today Show, and The History Channel, and was excerpted in The Los Angeles Times. Increasingly in the public eye, Runte further advised Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009), and appeared in every episode of the Emmy Award-winning series. In 2011, he was elected to membership in the College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at Illinois State University “in recognition of exemplary achievement” as a teacher and public scholar. Further observed the Western National Parks Association in 2021: “As a writer, educator, and speaker he has been a tireless champion of the National Park System and our Public Lands.”
Review :
"John Muir referred to wilderness as going home—a home, Al Runte reminds us, whose foundations were laid in Yosemite. The events and personalities following make for his riveting story of wilderness both betrayed and redeemed. Are the national parks forever? Stout hearts and minds can only hope. Meanwhile, never has that hope, as buttressed by Yosemite’s archetypal history, been in better hands." —Ken Burns, director/producer, The National Parks: America's Best Idea
"This is what the National Park Service would call an administrative history, but thankfully it is so much more. The land is really the story, supported by the visionary explorers, artists, writers, poets, scientists, and educators that changed America’s perception of what it means to have national parks. No doubt, Runte will be accused of taking the side of wilderness, but that makes for an even better read. After all, if truly we Americans believe in our parks, there is no other viable approach to their management." —Harry A. Butowsky, National Park Service historian (ret.), and co-creator, npshistory.com
"I am serious and sincere when I say that this book is must reading for any park professional, in whatever capacity, active or retired, new hire or veteran. It provides insights into issues of wildlife and human management, recreation and preservation, accommodations and wilderness, development and maintenance, access and carrying capacity that can be learned from and utilized in any number of geographic settings and park classifications." ?Robert C. Pavlik, The CSPRA Wave (Newsletter of the California State Park Rangers Association)
Praise for the first edition of Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness"This is a powerful and important book, a critical contribution to Yosemite historiography and ideology at a time when the politicizing of the National Park Service and the vast hordes of visitors pose genuine threats not only to the natural environment of Yosemite but to human emotional and spiritual engagement with those great beings, El Capital, Sugar Pine, Bear, and Coyote." —David Robertson, Western American Literature, May 1991"[Yosemite] is well-written, meticulously researched, and represents a valuable follow-up to the author’s prior work, National Parks: The American Experience (1979). Runte traces the development of Yosemite from its designation as a park in 1864 to the present, with an emphasis on how and why one of America’s most popular parks has deteriorated to little more than a tourist trap. . . . In sum,. Runte has written a major work that has application beyond the Yosemite experience." ?Gary E. Elliott, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly,Summer 1991"Once again, Alfred Runte has offered up a thorough, well-researched, and well-conceived history of the national parks. Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness is classic Runte. The writing is crisp, the ideas forceful, the tone opinionated, and the message direct. Runte focuses on the debate over the management of the natural resources of the park, deftly addressing the delicate questions of the balance between preservation and use that are at the core of national park policy-making in the U.S." ?Hal K. Rothman, Environmental History Review, Fall 1991"This thoroughly researched, well-written book is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature related to America’s national parks and conflicts in natural resource management. . . . What Runte offers here, written up in a lively and enjoyable style, is a meticulous documentation of the park development and entertainment rationale, as well as a very perceptive analysis of the economic, political, and cultural influences that have shaped the management—and mismanagement—of Yosemite’s unique heritage resources." ?Robert L. Janiskee, Journal of Historical Geography, No,. 2, 1992
