"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 destiniesNative 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
"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 HuntingtonUSC Institute on California and the West
"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 Mining North America: An Environmental History since 1522
