From Acadia to Yellowstone: The National Parks of the United States

William A. Waiser is a professor of history at the University of
Saskatchewan, and the author of Saskatchewan’s Playground: A History
of Prince Albert National Park and Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of
Western Canada’s National Parks, 1915–1946.

Canada’s first Dominion Parks Commissioner, J.B. Harlin, used to claim
that national parks were a timeless resource, in that the scenery could
be sold year after year to tourists and never be exhausted. This
handsome new book on the American national park system would suggest
that Harkin was right.

From Acadia to Yellowstone highlights the 54 special places that make
up the U.S. national park system—from the forbidding Gates of the
Arctic in northern Alaska and the now-dormant Haleakala volcano in
Hawaii to the ancient Canyonlands of Utah. Each park’s particular
natural features and local history are elegantly described in one or two
pages; there is also a handy reference box for each, indicating the date
of the park’s establishment and size, address, and phone number. But
the heart of this book is its photographs—more than 100 stunning color
images that capture the many environments that have been set aside for
American public enjoyment and recreation.

From Acadia to Yellowstone is a visual celebration of the national park
ideal. Readers who are interested in a probing, realistic assessment of
the state of American parks and the many internal and external
challenges they face will have to look elsewhere. But anyone who enjoys
splendid pictures will be more than satisfied.