{"product_id":"the-mountains-are-calling-tourists-and-the-unmaking-of-yosemite-national-park-hardback-9781496239587","title":"The Mountains Are Calling; Tourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park (Hardback) 9781496239587","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Mountains Are Calling\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eTourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMichael W. Childers (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496239587\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 1 July 2026\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e300 pages, 29 photographs, 1 illustration, 3 maps, index\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.612 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Michael Childers's excellent book provides a fresh inside-out perspective on the country's struggles to preserve 'wilderness' in Yosemite. Childers shifts the spotlight from national environmental and political leaders to the people of Yosemite, and how they also shaped the region's destinies—Native precursors, military guardians, poachers, inn holders, concessionaires, resident park personnel, and, of course, floods of diverse visitors with varied goals. This book joins the list of standard works on Yosemite.\"—Richard J. Orsi, emeritus professor of history at California State University, East Bay\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"We have a lot of Yosemite scholarship, but Michael Childers is correct that we have not paid nearly enough scholarly attention to the visitors. Childers has an eye for setting a scene or a moment by opening with a narration of a person or group arriving in, walking in, or contemplating the park. The visitors in this book help us imagine the park they saw, knew, and experienced. Their stories are more captivating than those of John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Carleton Watkins.\"—William Deverell, director of the Huntington–USC Institute on California and the West\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"By turning attention to the many different voices and developments that have contributed to Yosemite's history, Michael Childers offers a much richer, more diverse, and more complicated understanding of Yosemite National Park. Childers excels at uncovering interesting, important, and revealing stories that illuminate the many people and forces that have shaped the park, and in doing so, he invites readers to ponder the wonders of Yosemite and their future anew.\"—George Vrtis, coeditor of \u003ci\u003eMining North America: An Environmental History since 1522\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eYosemite National Park hosts more than four million visitors annually, a number that underscores both the national park's immense popularity and its limits. Large numbers of visitors means air pollution from car emissions, noise pollution that drowns out the sounds of nature, and destroyed habitat—especially near campgrounds and crowded hiking trails. From the first party of tourists in 1855 to the millions who visit today, Yosemite's visitors have played a primary role in shaping the park's history. Visitors drove Yosemite's development and, ultimately, its popularity, but in doing so, they have turned out to be the greatest threat to the very experiences they seek.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn seeking to understand how visitors' perceptions and experiences have shaped their understanding of the purpose of national parks, and nature more broadly, \u003ci\u003eThe Mountains Are Calling\u003c\/i\u003e places visitors at the center of Yosemite's story. In histories of the national parks, environmental historians traditionally focus on either a conflict between preservation or exploitation, or a celebration of its founders, but such approaches often overlook the millions of visitors or depict them as backdrops in a larger morality play over the preservation of nature. Michael W. Childers instead addresses the lived experiences of visitors and their role in creating national parks, within the context of national park policy shifts and broader American cultural history. Foregrounding the stories of Indigenous people, tourists, innkeepers, soldiers, rangers, climbers, concessioners, and administrators, \u003ci\u003eThe Mountains Are Calling\u003c\/i\u003e tells a more complete story of the park's past to make sense of tourism's environmental costs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Illustrations\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart 1\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Making an American Landscape\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Making a National Park\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart 2\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. California's Playground\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Let's Open the Parks\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart 3\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. A Flood of Visitors\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Absolutely Democratic\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEpilogue: Granite, Not Gridlock\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotes\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBibliography\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52600287232280,"sku":"9781496239587","price":41.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-mountains-are-calling-tourists-and-the-unmaking-of-yosemite-national-park-hardback-9781496239587","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}