Runte's thesis has stood the test of time -- plenty of historians would say it's obsolete, but the University of Nebraska just published a fourth edition of his groundbreaking work. Runte is responsible for two major ideas in American parks history, the worthless lands thesis and the monumentalism thesis:
The natural landscape, Runte argues, filled the place in the American psyche which was in Europe reserved only for man-made construction. What the country lacked in historical architecture, it could easily make up for in the great range of natural sights and scenes, especially in the Rocky Mountains far to the west. This thesis has since been referred to as "monumentalism"...
But where to put these monuments (or rather, where to commemorate them, since the natural monuments were already present)? Cultural pride was an important objective to many people in the republic, but not, according to Runte, a predominant one, especially not when compared with such important objectives as settlement and economic development. As a result, early proponents of national parks, especially Yosemite and, took paints to point out that the small pockets of mountainous land which they hoped to reserve for national parks were actually not useful for alternative development by miners, railway companies, agriculturists, etc.
Obviously similar ideas would seem to have relevance in other countries, like Canada.
Read the rest of this review on Bukisa.
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