Like John Muir, Al Runte has felt the siren call of our saved—and sacred—places, and, like John Muir, he has found a way to share their glories with power and poetry. This is a sensitive, well-written history of our land and the complicated people who call it home.

– Ken Burns, filmmaker

Alfred Runte brilliantly demonstrates why he is considered one of America's preeminent environmental historians. Not only does National Parks sing with inspiration, but it is the most trustworthy synthesis scholars have on the American preservation movement. Everybody should read this marvelous study. Highly recommended!

– Douglas Brinkley, Rice University

Having had a role in the beginnings of this important book, it is an honor to celebrate its fifth edition. Al Runte reminds us how dramatically the valuation of national parks has changed in little more than a century. Read it and you will learn why national parks can be considered a distinctively American idea, indeed a contribution of our nation to world civilization.

– Roderick Frazier Nash, author of Wilderness and the American Mind

By far the best book ever written about our national parks.

– Harry Butowsky, National Park Service Historian (ret.), and co-founder, npshistory