How should a national park be managed? Among all of the debates affecting America’s national parks, none has proved more enduring. Nor has any park, Alfred Runte reminds us, been in the spotlight more than Yosemite. Its cast of characters is especially rich, including James Mason Hutchings, Galen Clark, Frederick Law Olmsted, John Muir, David Brower, Joseph Grinnell, George M. Wright, and Ansel Adams. Not only was Yosemite the centerpiece of their careers, it was also the wellspring of their passion for nature. Now fully revised and updated, Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness continues their story, from Yosemite’s path-breaking establishment in 1864 as a grant to California, 1890 expansion into a national park, boundary reductions and loss of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, evolution of wildlife protections and science, management practices threatening Yosemite Valley, and the fight for wilderness to the present day.
The 2021 recipient of the Stewart L. Udall Award from the Western National Parks Association, ALFRED RUNTE is recognized as one of America’s leading environmental historians. Born and raised in Binghamton, New York, he received his B.A. from Harpur College of the State University of New York (now Binghamton University). Intrigued by the national parks, he headed west for graduate study, completing his M.A. at Illinois State University and Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Currently in its fifth edition at Lyons Press, his path-breaking book, National Parks: The American Experience, has been in print for 43 years. Interspersed with university teaching, Runte next turned to preparing Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness, including research over four seasons as a ranger naturalist in Yosemite Valley. The book led to guest appearances on Nightline, 48 Hours, The Today Show, and The History Channel, and was excerpted in The Los Angeles Times. Increasingly in the public eye, Runte further advised Ken Burns’s PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009), and appeared in every episode of the Emmy Award-winning series. In 2011, he was elected to membership in the College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at Illinois State University “in recognition of exemplary achievement” as a teacher and public scholar. Further observed the Western National Parks Association in 2021: “As a writer, educator, and speaker he has been a tireless champion of the National Park System and our Public Lands.”
