...Angela Sirna This article uses Catoctin Mountain Park as a case study to chart the evolution of social policy on a national park landscape. It places these changes in the larger context of economic, social, and land use policies throughout the twentieth century. These policies and programs often...

...Karl Jacoby The release of Ken Burns's documentary on the national parks is to be celebrated for bringing national attention to the field of environmental history. Yet for all the movie's strengths, Burns only partially engaged two concepts central to contemporary environmental history: social...

...Cindy Ott This essay analyzes how Burns adapts his well-known documentary style to the subject of national parks and the effects of his visual representations on viewers' understanding of the parks. It offers two main critiques: first, Burns presents an ideal of nature that inhibits viewers from...

...Brenda J. Child The National Parks begins in 1851 and ends with Alaska in the 1970s, yet almost entirely erases Indigenous history from the landscape, allowing Native Alaskans, Indigenous Hawaiians, and American Indians no foothold or voice in the modern story of the parks. This is remarkable...

... Washington Update , kept historians informed about developments in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches and rallied their support behind such pressing issues as freedom of information, an independent National Archives, and the preservation of historical sites in the national parks. She reflected...

...JANET A. McDONNELL This article focuses on the way in which the National Park Service (NPS) resisted demands for the consumptive use of park resources during World War II primarily through the use of carefully crafted arguments and powerful rhetoric, but also by enlisting the support...