The National Parks: America's Best Idea

A good Ken Burns view of our National Parks. Lots of how they came to be and what's there. But not really meant to be a tourist's guide. I think a good book to read before going but not necessarily a guide as to what to see. Nevertheless a good reference about one of the US most profound uses of its land, something that does not happen in any other country or continent, rivaled only by Africa

I bought this book for my Grandfather who absolutely loved the book. He also really likes Ken Burns (one of the authors). The book has excellent information about the national parks. The book also includes some really old photos which are very interesting to look at. The only reason I gave the book a 4 and not 5 stars is because I wish it would include more photos. Other then that, It's a wonderful book.

This is a magnificent book; I first loaned it to a 92 year-old friend who is going to order her own copy. She has visited many of the parks, enjoyed the television show by Ken Burns and remembers the Depression and the CCC.
Kathy

This book is literally a written version of the movies. I really like having it because of the quality images, but would probably be more likely to recommend the abridged CDs. The CDs are great for long car rides and are easier to follow than the movies because the narrator's voice is less likely to put you to sleep than the movies' narrator.

The book is a thorough and comprehensive explanation of the origin and development of the National Park System. The photos are top notch. This will be a great reference book for helping to plan visits to the various national parks and other national sites.

The book is an excellent accompaniment for those who viewed the series on PBS or purchased the DVD collection Ken Burns: National Parks - America's Best Idea. It has breathtaking pictures and well written text.

this is like having the script to the 6 disc PBS special by Ken Burns and more. I got this with the CD's as a gift for my husband. He loves it. It sits on the coffee table, and everyone picks it up now and then and enjoys it. The pictures, history and interviews are wonderful.

When people come and speak at our company, we give this book as a thank you. We add a bookplate in the front signed by the entire executive team. People love it. It is an appropriate gift for all ages and all interests

The book is great, but the "Deckle Edge" pages didn't exist. the store sent me 2 books before Christmas and neither had the deckle edge that would have made it so much cooler. This book was also available at Costco durning the same time and they didn't have the edged paper either.

Incredible! The National Parks in our country may be our most beautiful asset. I have seen--and photographed--most of them myself. But this book is done by true experts who truly love what they are seeing and have the knowledge to take the images to share with the rest of us. Even if you've seen all the Parks, you'll want this as a reminder of their beauty.

This is just such an inspiring and surprising story. I suspect most Americans have no idea of the history and major efforts to establish our National Parks. Having visited several I found this video was able to take me back to what I experienced when I was actually in the park. Just a truly remarkable piece of work. Should be required in every American History class in the nation.

This compilation of photos and writings underlines the importance of the treasure we have in our National Parks. It also emphasizes the selfless contributions of people over the years as they helped to preserve the environment and make it accessible to all ages. It serves as an inspiration for those who have not been actively involved in the parks' preservation to take a stand and help in leaving a legacy for future generations. Outstanding photography by Ken Burns!

I looked forward to receiving this wonderful book and when it promptly arrived I was certainly not disappointed! The book is in excellent condition, just as listed and I look forward to giving it as a wonderful gift! Thank you!

A good book for history and the people who worked to save and preserve our natural resources.
Thanks to that forsight of those who saw the treasures of our country we can now enjoy what they saw many years ago. Just not a coffee table book.

This hardbound book is filled with information on America's National Parks with many breath-taking pictures included. This book sells for $50.00 in retail stores. I purchased it used in excellent condition for less than $20.00; plus additional $4.00 USPS shipping. Recieved book in less than a week; was told it could take up to 2 weeks. Well pleased with the purchase.

This was an expensive book and I found it much like many other books on Nat'l Parks. A little too wordy for me...more history than 'places to go and things to see'. I was expecting a book with more info on places to go within and around the park areas as well.

I expected more from this book, expecially more pictures. The cover had this beautiful picture and I really thought that once you turned the pages there would be more. Too many black and white pictures and far too much history not enough about now.

Loved the PBS series on the Nat'l Parks, so expected more from the book.
Would've sent it back but was too lazy to do so over the holidays.
Guess I expected more full-color pictures and modern-day descriptions
of each park. The history is interesting of course, but the book wasn't what
I thought it would be.

I bought this as a gift for a cousin in Australia. The book was out of stock in local stores before Christmas. I bought from the store. Upon receiving it, I was disappointed in the relative lack of outstanding color Photos of our parks, (like the one on the cover). Lots of text about Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. It wasn't what I was looking for. I returned it. Check it out before you buy.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns is a coffee table book which is supposed to be a supplementary to the TV documentary, but certainly stands on its own.

On our last vacation we managed to hit three national parks, one was planned but the other two were just road stops. When I saw The National Parks: America’s Best Idea by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns in our local library I picked it up for no other reason.

I’m happy I did, this is a wonderful book, full of excellent, enticing visuals and great passages. The historical parts are informative but not too overburdening. I especially enjoyed the old promotional posters peppered within the book.

Even if you don’t have a passion for the outdoors, or not a fan of America’s National Parks this book will certainly entertain you. It is an easy read with excellent pictures from the old and recent days.

The development of the Park System is discussed and several individuals are recognized in shaping the way we think of our parks. Treating them as the national treasure which several outstanding leaders recognized them to be a long time before others came on board.

This is more of a historical book, if you want to find information about one particular park this is not for you. I believe this book would make a wonderful gift to almost anyone, and a pleasure to have around the house.

This is a beautiful book! Mr. Duncan and Mr. Burns have done a wonderful job telling the history of our National Park system. The book clearly shows the depth of the 30-odd years that they have been working on their project. As the sub-title of the book indicates, this is "an illustrated history." The illustrations alone are worth the price of the book. You won't see the usual travel guide and brochure shots in this book. Instead you will find hundreds of historic and contemporary photos of the National Park system. I cannot imagine the amount of research that went into assembly and organizing all of these photos. They are simply gorgeous.

The text is very informative and provides you with a good history of the National Park system. You will learn a lot about the history of our nation when you read this book. Each chapter also has an interview with someone who is part of the Park Service or has close connections with the Service. These interviews (no surprise here) help bring to life that topics of the text. Being a Ken Burns project, the text tells the big story through little stories: history is personalized and seen through the eyes of the participants.

Simply put, this is a book to linger over and savor. It is a coffee table book in the truest sense: you will want to keep it within easy reach. This is a book to inspire you to daydream and ponder. It will enrich your experiences of our National Parks and you will find yourself planning years of vacations! If you have any interest in our National Park system, you must buy this book. You will not regret it for one second! Enjoy!

This fast-paced thriller is pure Raymond Chandler—filtered through Doris Kearns Goodwin. The historical blends seamlessly with the insightfully speculative and the entirely fictional as the political left and right gird for war on two continents. The battle lines drawn in Raymond Hardie’s No Man’s Land are, eerily, being retraced today. The scapegoating, the fearmongering, the bloviation, the soulless pursuit of money all seem to jump out of today’s headlines. But No Man’s Land is set firmly in 1933, as fascinating—and frightening—a year as one can imagine: the end of Prohibition, the heart of the Depression, the rise of both Hitler and FDR, the birth of the New Deal and the death of the gold standard, the first faint but unmistakable drumbeats of WWII. (It is also the year Chandler published his first short story, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot.”)

The book is built around a plot by wealthy, right-wing businessmen to overthrow FDR. Cameos are made by such historic luminaries as General Smedley Butler, who first reported the planned coup against Roosevelt; FDR himself; and the evil propaganda twins, Joseph Goebbels and J. Edgar Hoover. But center stage belongs to the fictional protagonist, Frank Kelly, an LA-based labor lawyer. Kelly, like the other major characters (as well as the two featured nations, the United States and Germany), is both shaped and haunted by the Great War. He is a distinctive blend of tough and tender: a former Marine who can throw a punch and likes to drink with longshoremen, but who also loves jazz, sides with working-class underdogs, and struggles to come to terms with the death of his wife. Hard-boiled or soft, Kelly is a good egg who must call on all his strengths in a desperate attempt to save the leader of the free world.

I did not realize that America actually has as many as 59 National Parks! This book has a LOT of beautiful color pictures from a wide variety of scenes from our National Parks. I counted the color ones--there are about 97 of them. There are a HUGE number of sepia toned and black and white historical photographs from the early days of the fight to create the National Park system and the time of the development of the parks. The end papers have a map of the USA with the location of each park marked on it. Interestingly, most of the National Parks are in the western U.S.A. and Alaska and Hawaii. Since I live in CO that is very exciting for me. If what you are looking for is a guidebook of what to do and where to go and how to get around the parks, you will NOT find that here. But if you are interested in the fascinating story of how "America's Best Idea" (the National Park system) came to be, then there will be a LOT here to savor and enjoy. America is an amazing country. There has never been a king who actually lived in America and so there has never been a king's forest or preserve. In England and Europe the rulers owned vast tracks of land for their own enjoyment only. The average citizen had no park or preserve to go to. THAT is why our Parks are "America's Best Idea." We have given to every citizen a legacy of recreation and renewal. Each of us can visit any of these places on vacation and enjoy some of the world's most beautiful countryside. This book chronicles the story of how it all came about. Maybe this is NOT a guidebook, but it might just inspire you through its pictures to pick out a new National Park to visit this year.

I saw all the 5 star reviews before buying this dog. If you are interested in who's who in the history of the development of our national park system, then search no further. There are a few nice photos of the national parks, but most of what you will see in this book are pictures of some of the men and women that sacraficed to ensure that future generations of the public would have these wonderful places to visit, versus a handful of rich people hoarding it. America's best idea is because some things cannot be put into a museum or be properly represented in a book or video, you just have to see them up close and personal.

This is a great book for learning the history of our national parks and the people who helped them become a reality. As other reviewers have mentioned this is not a photography book of park pictures or a detailed guide to any of the parks, so do not buy it if that is what you are seeking. The purpose of the book is to explain in detail the story of people like John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt’s involvement in the creation of America’s national park system. The pictures are primarily of the people being described although there are many nice pictures of the parks and plenty of historic ones. There are plenty of people in the book that I had never heard of prior to reading it who played pivotal roles in the creation of our park system. Size wise the book is large and heavy and not comfortable to sit down and read it on your lap it is more something to place on a table and read. Altogether, it’s a great book if you are interested in learning more about how America’s national park system came to be in existence.

It's hard to go wrong providing a book about our national parks. The narrative covers the history or our parks - now numbering nearly 400 sites and 84 million acres. It is not a tour guide, nor a list of inns and lodges to stay at.

Duncan and Burns visit each of our major parks, beginning with Yosemite, telling of early travelers (James Hutchings - 1855, in the case of Yosemite) and their experiences, the efforts required to have the area set aside and preserved for everyone, and their sometimes incompetent initial administration. Perhaps surprisingly, Thomas Jefferson is included - he paid King George 20 shillings for Virginia's Natural Bridge, a limestone arch 215 feet high spanning a gorge carved by a tributary of the James River. Jefferson viewed it as a public trust, and it has since been preserved and added to our park system. Early threats to our national treasures are also covered - eg. by the 1860s every overlook on the American side of Niagara Falls was owned by a private landowner charging a fee.

Returning to Yosemite, readers also learn that John Muir applied for the job of sawmill operator at Hutchings Yosemite Inn in 1869, and went on to become our foremost naturalist. Yellowstone's initial preservation efforts benefited from a group hoping to boost volume on the planned Northern Pacific train route.

Duncan and Burns continue their story and photos - across the nation.

Ken Burns is easily the cream of the crop when it comes to documentary film making (take that, Michael Moore!). The Civil War, The War, Baseball...his credentials go on and on. Each of his documentaries has been amazing in its own way. His latest film is called The National Parks and like its predecessors, it is accompanied by a coffee table book. I was rather surprised to see that book, with its $50 price tag, spring onto the list of bestsellers and remain there for a couple of weeks.

Coming in at over 400 pages and weighing about as much as a small car, The National Parks is chock full of both text and pictures. The book follows the same format as the film, offering six chapters that cover roughly the same material. Chapters average fifty or sixty pages and they are split roughly evenly between text and photographs. The text is interesting enough, describing the genesis of "America's best idea." The photographs are often stunning, showing some of the most amazing scenery America has to offer. My only complaint, if we can label it that, is that the paper used in the book could use a bit more gloss in order to really make those pictures pop. Nevertheless, even as they are, they provide amazing evidence of the beauty to be found in America's parks.

What gripped me as I read the book was the beautiful simplicity of the idea behind the National Parks. In days past and in other nations, the richest people, the most powerful people, had been able to have their nature preserves, their areas of unbroken and pure land. They had been able to set aside these little bits of paradise for themselves and had been able to enforce privacy, ensuring that the commoners were kept far away. In America, though-the land of free-vast areas of land were set aside specifically for the common man. The National Parks were to be held in trust by the nation for the benefit of all Americans in all of time. The parks were an investment in the future. One needs only look to Niagara Falls to see what happens when such stunning scenery goes unprotected. There is hardly a square inch of the Falls that is not in some way defiled, in some way exploited. It is due to the efforts of those who fought for the National Parks that Yellowstone and Yosemite and the Badlands and all these other areas remain largely undefiled. America's best idea is really in some ways her simplest. Many generations have benefited from it already and many more will continue to do so. America would not be what she is without her National Parks.

Let me first point out that I'm just reviewing the companion book to Ken Burns' PBS show--having not (yet!) seen the show I make no attempt at discussing how it relates to the TV program. This is simply a look on how the book holds up on its own merits.

And let me say it is an eye-popper! As a coffee table book alone, it succeeds wildly, with all kinds of stunning photos that make you want to grab the kids and hit the road. What is particularly enjoyable is that it uses a whole range of illustrations--besides glorious contemporary photos of these magnificent landscapes, there are fascinating historic photos in B&W and photos of the various cranks, caretakers and visionaries whose lives were so deeply entwined with the park. There are also a number of beautifully reproduced photos of paintings from the Hudson River school of painting back in the mid-1800s that not only sparked interest in America's landscapes but created one of the first great artistic movements in our country.

And as always, it's amazing how landscapes can communicate such profound, and profoundly human emotions, even when there are no people depicted. The simple visual of a lone tree, buried under a heavy canopy of snow and placed against a blank winter landscape can convey loneliness on such a powerful unconscious level. Or how a sunrise on the rim of the Grand Canyon can convey majesty beyond any human description. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

But what makes this so much better than a photo essay of great landscapes is the wonderful written content that frames the illustrations. The text brings these magnificent parks back into the realm of human beings. Again and again we read about how determined individuals, communities, businesses and even bureaucrats *created* these parks, fighting tooth and nail to preserve these natural wonders for us all. Along the way we meet all kinds of fascinating people, and learn to admire their fortitude--or chuckle at their eccentricities. The text is well assembled and flows smoothly, and is as large in its scope as the Grand Canyon itself. Absolutely riveting.

But this also brilliantly shows the character of Americans--we the people. This is a tour-de-force civics lesson on patriotism, of making the country better and making the government serve us, and should be joyously read by every American. Which, I bet, was precisely Ken Burns' goal all along.

This is a book that everyone--left, right, northerner, southerner, African-American, Latino, Caucasian... EVERYONE--should love and cherish. What an incredible country we share! And what a spectacular book that does justice to it!

This work contains dozens of ideal photos, art and quotes. It covers the whole historical sweep of the parks movement. It nicely reflects society through time. The authors use a historical approach to coherently tell an engaging story of the development of the parks system and to display the pictures in context.

The book is biographical, highlighting the key role played by many individuals throughout the last 150 years. The book is comprehensive, covering politics, conservation, science, philanthropy, transportation, culture and staff members. The diverse appearances and content of the parks are portrayed effectively.

While a sense of progress is tangible throughout, the authors make clear the fragile nature of that progress, with a handful of true believers repeatedly combating the lack of a comprehensive plan or broad public support and the competing commercial interests.

The authors make a compelling case for their claim that the parks are "America's Best Idea". Their preserved value is a legacy to the nation and the world. The quality of the book matches the quality of the parks. This coffee table book will be appealing 10, 50 and 100 years from now.

In 1872 the United States Government created the first National Park on the globe: Yellowstone National Park. "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" tells the history of our National Parks system that sprung out of the collection of "artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and tourists" that found beauty and worth in the stunning natural world. John Muir was inspired by the majesty of the American landscape and became the voice for the preservation of our spectacular wilderness. Ken Burns' series on the National Parks is ever so timely as cynicism seems to be our new national voice. I highly recommend this book and Burns' documentaries and am convinced that those who pay attention to Burns' ideas will come away changed and inspired.

Ken Burns is an American treasure. My son and I were fortunate to meet him and thank him for the amazing work he has done to bring history to the forefront of public consciousness. We are lucky to have him and his art.

The audiobook version of an award-winning television program is likely to be lacking certain key features, especially on a topic like extolling the beauty of America's wild spaces. That said, I found this to be a very well-run presentation of the series in audible format, transcribing many of the televised interviews into professional readings from sound actors. The works is organized like a loosely-scattered biography of the parks: how each came to be, key players in each story, etc. There is a tonal emphasis on the national parks as a distinctively American tradition. This was much appreciated.

The book is a great companion to the series and resulting videos put out by Ken Burns thru PBS, however, I noticed that the whole series was a little "envirronmentalist" in attitude, rather being an objective view on the rise of the National Parks System. For example it totally downplayed the Hayden and other surveys, which actually brought images back to those in the East, who were the main policy makers of the day in favor of John Muir's views. In order to be more objective, all views need to be equally looked at.

The book itself was exactly what I had hoped for. Amazing photographs with informative, well-written narrative. I was, however, disappointed in how this item was packaged for shipping. While there was plastic wrapped around the book, there was no packing material and the box was fitted almost exactly to the size of the book. As a result, the book had one corner dented. It was a gift my organization presented to our outgoing President, so this was particularly disappointing.

I gave this to my daughter for Christmas and I think it was her favorite gift. She had seen part of the documentary and was anxious to spend time with this book. It is a beautiful book and makes a really great gift.

I love this book! I haven't read all of it yet, but what I have has been very interesting - tells the story of those who played a part in making the National Parks what they are. Beautiful pictures as well!

This Is a History Book, Plain and Simple. It's well written with much more detail to the history of the the National Parks System than any other book out there but there are very few beuatiful color landscape pictures, most are old time black and white or grey scale pictures on each page of this HISTORICAL Book.The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

This is a BIG beautiful book that covers the history of our national parks, including the politicians, east coast socialites, and mountain men that preserved this land. It if full of stories from the last hundred years and each time you pick it up, you'll find another interesting piece of history.

I was very disappointed in this book. I purchased this book hoping it would be a guide for my husband and I to visit the National Parks. After looking at this book we decided we didn't want to go. Then I returned this book.

It is a wonderful history book. It is not a travel planner. Lots of historical photographs and lots of black and white photography. If you're in to the history of the national parks, this is the book for you! You'll love it! If you're planning on going to the national parks and want to know the ins and outs of traveling there, buy Fromm's or another travel book from the store.

I got this from our library, after having looked longingly at it several summers in a row as we visited National Parks. I'm glad I didn't buy it - the photographs of the parks in the book are lovely, but there are not nearly enough of them. Instead, most of the photographs are of people and the historical parks.

The text in the book is too predictably anti-American. As in, the parks are America's national parks, but ideally, regular Americans would be kept out of them more often (or restricted to certain areas) so that the parks could be places of solitude for people who really understand. Oh. Really? This book's text is filled with contempt for the people who rightly protest against ideas like introducing wild predators in areas that border ranches, or seizing property for the parks despite the fact that the property is owned by someone else, or placing rich mineral deposits completely off-limits by designating national park status... how silly of those people. Don't they know that their government knows what is best for them?

I have never seen the documentary that Ken Burns made, but this book probably follows it closely. They would have done much better to publish a book of spectacular color photographs and skip the predictably anti-human blah blah blah. If you want that stuff, you can read practically any guidebook published (Fodor's, Frommer's, especially Lonely Planet...)