THE HISTORY OF NATIONAL PARKS.

Catalog description

Pre-requisites: ENGL 201 or permission of instructor. The national parks have been called "America's best idea." But the setting aside landscapes and buildings for future generations to enjoy runs counter to another American ideal: progress. This course tells the story of the slow emergence in the United States of a conviction that, in John Muir's words, "we need beauty as well as bread"–that we need ancient forests to admire rather than to exploit, flower-clad meadows to enjoy rather than plow.