Please note: The following links may
contain copyrighted material. Permission has been granted to the
National Park Service to post this information online, but the
copyrights are still reserved by the owner of the original books.
While NPS-produced publications are normally considered to be in the
public domain, many of the reports contain illustrations that are copies
of materials NOT in the public domain, for which one-time reprint
permission was obtained prior to each report's publication. Persons
wishing to use these illustrations for any purpose beyond educational
perusal must obtain their own permissions from the owners of the
original materials.
Useful Books
BOOKS ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARKS AND NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Albright,
Horace M. and Marian Albright Schenck Creating
the National Park Service: The Missing Years. Norman, OK: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1999. 350 pp. A behind-the-scenes history shedding light on the
early days of National Park Service history.
Dilsaver,
Lary M., ed.
America's
National Park System: The Critical Documents.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994. 470 pp. This compilation
of key laws, executive orders, policy statements, reports, and other documents
affecting resources management in the parks includes historical summaries
of associated events and trends.
Everhart,
William C. The National Park Service. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
1983. 197 pp. A former leader of NPS interpretation covers the highlights
of the bureau's history and focuses on some of the key issues facing it
and the parks.
Everhardt, Bill.
Take Down Flag & Feed Horses. Urbana,
IL: University
of Illinois Press, 1998.
Farabee, Charles R. "Butch", Jr.
Death, Daring and Disaster: Search and Rescue in
the National Parks.
Boulder, CO: The Roberts Rinehart Publishing Group, 1999.
Foresta,
Ronald A. America's National Parks and Their Keepers. Washington:
Resources for the Future, 1985. 382 pp. A geographer analyzes the NPS as
a bureaucracy and traces the forces shaping the evolution of the park
system.
Hosmer,
Charles B., Jr. Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the
National Trust, 1926–1949. Charlottesville: University Press
of Virginia, 1981. 2 v., 1,291 pp. Part Three of this broad survey (pages
469–806) recounts the major role of the NPS and its historical staff
in the historic preservation movement.
Ise, John.
Our National Park Policy: A Critical History. Baltimore, MD: Johns
Hopkins Press, 1961. 701 pp. An older but still useful account focusing
primarily on the natural parks.
Kaufman,
Polly W. National Parks and the Woman's Voice: A History. Albuquerque,
NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. 305 pp. The contributions of women
to the National Park Service and the national park movement.
Mackintosh,
Barry. The
National Parks: Shaping the System. Washington, DC: National
Park Service, 1991. 128 pp. The NPS bureau historian discusses significant
developments and trends in the growth of the park system. Tables list
all park additions chronologically through 1990.
Rettie,
Dwight F. Our National Park System: Caring for America's Greatest Natural
and Historic Treasures. Urbana, IL: : University of Illinois Press, 1995.
293 pp. A former NPS official offers his views on the park system and the
bureau responsible for it.
Rothman,
Hal K. America's National Monuments: The Politics of Preservation. Lawrence,
KA: University Press of Kansas, 1994. 280 pp. Examines the different
roles of and attitudes toward national monuments within the park system
and service.
Runte, Alfred.
National Parks: The American Experience.
Lincoln,
NE.: 2d ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987. 335 pp. Treats the origins
and evolution of the national park idea and its political and bureaucratic
implementation.
Runte, Alfred.
Trains of Discovery. Nitwot, CO:
Roberts Rinehart Publishers,
1994.
Runte, Alfred.
Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness.Lincoln,
NE: University
of Nebraska Press, 1990
Sax, Joseph
L. "America's National Parks: Their Principles, Purposes, and Prospects."
Natural History, October 1976. pp. 59–87. Analyzes the purpose
of the parks in terms of what kinds of development and use they should
allow.
Sax, Joseph L.
Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks, Ann Arbor, MI: University
of Michigan Press. 1980.
Schullery, Paul.
Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and
Wonder in the Last Wilderness. Houghton Mifflin Press.
Sellars,
Richard West, Preserving Nature in the National
Parks: A History New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1997. 380 pp.
This book provides a fresh look at the National Parks and an analysis of why the
Service has not responded in full faith to the environmental concerns of recent
times.
Sontag,
William H., ed. National
Park Service: The First 75 Years. Philadelphia, PA:
Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1990. 64 pp. A concise
history of the bureau interspersed with biographical sketches of 36 key
park employees and supporters from the 19th century to the present.
Spence, Mark David.
Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal
and the Making of the National Parks. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000.
BOOKS ON BIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNTS
Albright,
Horace M., and Robert Cahn. The Birth of the National Park Service:
The Founding Years, 1913–33. Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1985.
340 pp. Albright recalls his key role in launching the bureau, his years
as superintendent of Yellowstone (1919–29), and his term as director
(1929–33).
Hartzog,
George B., Jr. Battling for the National Parks. Mt. Kisco, NY:
Moyer Bell, 1988. 284 pp. Hartzog's account of his colorful NPS career,
including his service as Jefferson National Expansion Memorial superintendent
(1959–62) and director (1964–72).
Ridenour,
James M. The National Parks Compromised: Pork Barrel Politics and America's
Treasures. Merrillville, IN: ICS Books, 1994. 254 pp. Ridenour's account
of his tenure as director (1989–93) devotes particular attention
to congressional relations and concessions.
Shankland,
Robert. Steve Mather of the National Parks. 3d ed. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1976. 346 pp. A lively biography of the charismatic founder and
first director (1917–29).
Swain, Donald
C. Wilderness Defender: Horace M. Albright and Conservation. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1970. 347 pp. A scholarly biography focusing
on Albright's Park Service career and evaluating his role in the conservation
movement.
Wirth, Conrad
L. Parks, Politics, and the People. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1980. 397 pp. Wirth's autobiography covers his service as NPS planner
and administrator beginning in 1931 and culminating in his term as director
(1951–64).
BOOKS ABOUT HISTORY, HISTORIC PRESERVATION AND CULTURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Carr, Ethan.Lincoln, NE:
Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the
National Park Service.
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998, 384 pp.
Clifford, Candace and Mary Louise.
Nineteenth-Century Lights: Historic Images of
American Lighthouses.Williamsburg, VA: Cypress Communications, 2000
Flint, Linda McClelland.
Building the National Parks: Historic Landscape
Design and Construction.Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Lee, Antoinette J.
Architects to the Nation: The
Rise and Decline of the Supervising Architect's Office. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2000.
Murtagh, William J.
Keeping Time: The History and Theory of
Preservation in America. New
York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
Roediger, David and Martin H.
Blatt. The Meaning of Slavery in the North.New York, NY:
Garland Pub. 1999.
Vlach, John Michael.
Back of the Big House: The Architecture of
Plantation Slavery. Chapel Hill,
NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Winks, Robin S.
Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for
Conservation. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997.
|