Item Description
This collected volume of original essays proposes to address the state of scholarship on the political, cultural, and intellectual history of Americans responses to wilderness from first contact to the present. While not bringing a synthetic narrative to wilderness, the volume will gather competing interpretations of wilderness in historical context.
Product Details
- Publication Date: 2007-03-08
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
- Product Group: Book
- Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
- Binding: Paperback, 304 pages
- Package Dimensions:
- Dimensions: 900L x 600W x 90H
- Weight: 90
- List Price: $25.00
- ISBN: 0195174143
- ASIN: 0195174143
Customer Reviews
Average Amazon User Rating: 
American Wilderness: A New History
2007-06-26
Reviewer: Kirk D. Wasson
A great read on why we need to work to protect the wilderness we have now. It is such a small part of our public lands. Not for preservation but for use, study, admiration and protection for future Americans.
Insightful historians' keen analyses
2007-06-21
Reviewer: Ye H. Kim
American Wilderness is a great textbook to study the history of US wilderness idea. This book provides a great supporting response to William Cronon's criticism on the modern wilderness idea of America; the insightful articles reveal that Americans have contructed their own wilderness idealism with religious, political, economic, and cultural tools. Despite of the American distinct feature in viewing nature (preservation of wilderness), the idea of preservation was spred to other countries as if it is a universial consensus. If Cronon's criticism mainly focuses on the domestic relationship between urban areas and untouched wilderness, this book reveals the troubles of American wilderness idea in the international context. In the end, Michael Lewis (somewhat indirectly and arguably) suggests Aldo Leopold's Land Ethics as the alternative solution. The whole book has a great logic and is highly recommended to any readers who have knowledges in wilderness conservation-preservation.
