Description
Book SynopsisLooks at the politics of US national parks and what the parks can teach us about citizenship and what it means to be American. Mary Stuckey asserts that through the national parks we can hope to explain the past, clarify the present, and project the future.
Trade Review"The rhetorical work of space and place is taken seriously in For the Enjoyment of the People. Stuckey supplies a brilliant interrogation of the ways that national parks have been used for claiming American identity and how the contestation of national identity can be forged from these same lands."—Leslie A. Hahner, professor of communication, Baylor University
"In For the Enjoyment of the People, Stuckey expertly explores the presidential politics and rhetoric engaged around the creation and extension of the national park system, while simultaneously unpacking what she terms the ‘political work’ exercised by the parks themselves. Stuckey artfully delineates how the two historical paths merge and clash around multiple layers of identity and value for a host of actors. The tension between extraction, conservation, spirituality, and delineating identity is revealed through fascinating case studies of many of the United States’ most beautiful, visited, and fought over public areas."—Diane J. Heith, author of The End of the Rhetorical Presidency: Public Leadership in the Trump Era
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
List of Images
Important Events in the Development of American Public Lands and the National Park Service
Introduction: Interpreting “America’s Best Idea”
1. Establishing National Origins: Erasure, Dispossession, and American Empire
2. Claiming a National Past: Patriotism and Citizenship
3. Asserting a Singular National Narrative: Whose History and Whose Heritage?
4. Protecting National Resources: Citizens Stewards and the Nation’s Future
5. Measuring Value: Entitlement in the Land of Opportunity
Conclusion: “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of All the People”
Notes
Bibliography
Index
