North Carolina Office of Archives and History

Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service by Ethan CarrReview by: Kathleen E. HalvorsenThe North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 76, No. 3 (JULY 1999), pp. 360-361Published by: North Carolina Office of Archives and HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23522681 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 12:45

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

North Carolina Office of Archives and History is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The North Carolina Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:45:12 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

360 Book Reviews

Saints); Spiritual Christianity (Christian Science and Unity); and Ecstatic Christianity (the Holiness and Pentecostal movements).

American Originals can serve quite well as a textbook because of its clear exposition and

the inclusion of reading guides at the end of each chapter. These guides are focused, it would

seem, at the seminary or beginning graduate student, containing, as they do, little

introduction to primary sources. Included, however, are a number of comments intended

to put various works into perspective. This observation regarding Christian Science is

typical: "Most of the archives of the church are closed to all but clearly sympathetic outside

historians. One result of this is a literature sharply divided, in content and tone, between

that approved by the church and the often shrill criticism of those who write from the

outside." There are no footnotes, nor are there quotations of primary source material.

Conkin presents a great deal of information on these denominations; more of it involves

the early fluid and formative years, assuming that the beginnings tell more about a religious

community than the latter years. It is true that denominational histories are written less

frequently nowadays, since denominations are increasingly homogenized into the American

"melting pot." But even for the two preceding centuries, it would appear that Conkin has

emphasized denominational concerns to the exclusion of themes common to all American

communities. For example, fundamentalism is a powerful movement that touches almost

every denomination, and even more so with Apocalypticism. It would be unfair to the

author to press this observation too far, because his intention was not to write a general

history of American religion. But on the other hand, readers may become uneasy with his

emphasis on individual communities; after all, denominations have never existed as

capsules sealed completely off from the American context.

And too, perhaps it is the American context that is lacking. Why America? What is

the American dynamic that led to these "original" denominations? Part of the answer to

this question lies in the afterword—that America is countertraditional and Pelagian insofar as it "made salvation at least in part something chosen even if not deserved." Nevertheless,

the question of "Why America" remains largely unaddressed. Maybe answering that

question should be Conkin's next project, which could well stand on the shoulders of this

one.

Because this work is interestingly and clearly written and brings diverse histories together in a challenging way, it is a worthwhile book for both students and faculty.

John Helgeland

North Dakota State University

John Helgeland

Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service. By Ethan Carr. (Lincoln:

University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Acknowledgments and archival sources, introduction,

illustrations, conclusion, notes, bibliography, index. Pp. viii, 378. $45.00.)

Wilderness by Design focuses upon the formative decades of the National Park Service and its national parks. Ethan Carr explains the history of the development of national as well as state and local park design forms. He also describes much of the history of American

landscape architecture, the National Park Service, and the preservation movement. He

argues that understanding the development of widely used "wilderness" or park design forms

requires the untangling of a complex web of people, culture, events, organizations, and

THE NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL REVIEW

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:45:12 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Book Reviews 361

professions. The book does a good job of untangling this complex web, with the author

moving comfortably between the spheres of history, society, and politics to develop his

explanation.

The introductory and concluding chapters establish the context of the early years of

the preservation movement, the history of European and American styles of landscape

architecture, and how landscape architects developed a style of design visible in many

private and public landscapes throughout the United States and Europe. Carr's primary

case studies, showcased within individual chapters, cover the early- to mid-twentieth

century designs of the Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Mount Rainier National Parks. He

focuses upon the decision-making processes involved in the design of the parks' villages,

road systems, and natural environments. In the course of these descriptions, he also shows

how the development of the National Park Service organization and the landscape

architecture profession both influenced and were influenced by these decision-making

processes. He also provides substantial material on the design of many other city, local,

and national parks. His work is based on an extensive review of primary sources.

The book has two flaws. One is the lack of maps in some key places in the text. For

instance, the discussion of the designs of both Central Park and Glacier National Park could

have benefited greatly from some simple illustrative maps. Another shortcoming is the

author's emphasis on describing in great detail the people and events involved in the design

of the three case study parks without adequately connecting them to his overarching

arguments and themes.

However, this book remains an excellent treatment of many aspects of American federal

land management and landscape architecture. It offers a broad and detailed history of how

the American parks that have come to be defined as "natural" wildernesses were actually

carefully socially constructed in processes inextricably linked to particular eras in American

politics, culture, history, organizations, and professions. The book will be of great interest

to anyone interested in the history of national parks, federal land management, or landscape

architecture. It would be useful as a text or as reference material for a class on the history

of American relationships to the environment, natural resource policy, or the history of

landscape architecture. It is a must-have for any college library.

Kathleen E. Halvorsen

Michigan Technological University

VOLUME LXXVI • NUMBER 3 • JULY 1999

Kathleen E. Halvorsen

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.20 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:45:12 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions