The companion volume to the twelve-hour PBS series from theacclaimed filmmaker behind The Civil War, Baseball, and TheWar America’s national parks spring from an idea as radical as theDeclaration of Independence: that the nation’s most magnificent andsacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, butfor everyone. In this evocative and lavishly illustrated narrative,Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the parkidea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valleythat would become Yosemite and the creation of the world’s firstnational park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recentadditions to a system that now encompasses nearly four hundredsites and 84 million acres. The authors recount the adventures, mythmaking, and intensepolitical battles behind the evolution of the park system, and theenduring ideals that fostered its growth. They capture theimportance and splendors of the individual parks: from Haleakala inHawaii to Acadia in Maine, from Denali