This authoritative and stirring assessment of our public lands - the first book ever published to give the history and propose the future of each unit of a federal trust that today accounts for approximately one-third of America's landmass - begins with the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. The national park concept, which the historian Lord Bryce called the best idea to come out of the New World, was the first attempt by a national government to preserve land for future generations. Since then, hundreds of additional parks, monuments, historic sites, wilderness areas, and...