Interesting book. Especially liked the section about Teddy Roosevelt park in North Dakota. Grew up near there, and always enjoyed the park. At times the writer gets a little didactic, and got a little political in the introduction, but overall a good book. Would make a nice coffee table book.

I received a free electronic copy of this excellent history of America's Public Lands on December 5, 2019, from Netgalley, Mark Kenyon, and Little A Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. Kenyon brings to us all the many reasons our public lands are worth fighting for, and details the battles we and our forefathers have fought to keep this important heritage for our children and grandchildren and theirs. I am pleased to recommend this work to friends and family. Mark Kenyon is an author I will follow.

This is a must-read for all ages. For hunters, fishermen, adventure filmmakers and writers, mountain bikers, skiers, backpackers, and RVers, for people looking for a picnic spot to those with a summer to spend in the wilds. This is a go-to for finding your favorite place, the spot that you know in your soul you need to find peace or to share with a loved one. Kenyon covers all the greats and many of the not-so-great parks for those of us seeking solitude and the blessings of wilderness. He also defines all the past proponents of our national parks, forests, Wilderness parks, BLM, and monuments - from Teddy Roosevelt, Edward Abby, Wallace Stegner, to modern nature lovers like this author, Randy Newberg, Peter Metcalf, Rose Marcario of Patagonia and corporations like Patagonia, REI and Cabela. This is a battle we will lose if we don't stand together. And it is a dirty fight. Always check your sources before you believe what you read, and especially before you donate. Those seeking to move federal lands to state control or private sale can throw unlimited funds into the fight. We can't match them a dollar per dollar. We need to make every penny of our hard-won money count. This is not a political party issue but a concerted effort to keep irreplaceable wild America as it is.

I will end with a quote Kenyon shared from Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. "They say that hunters and tree huggers can't get together. That's BS. The only way we're going to get anything done is to work together." And remember that if 'they' can't buy the lands, they can cut the funding until there is nothing left to save. Just look at what happened to our parks - especially Joshua Tree National Park, over the last Federal budget shutdown.

Recommended for nature and national park lovers. There a lot of helpful reviews already, so suffice it to say that this is a good buy. Recommended.