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In The State Park Movement in America, Ney
Landrum,
recipient of almost two dozen honors and awards
for his service
to state and national parks, places the movement for state parks
in the context of the movements for urban and local parks on one
side and for national parks on the other. He traces the evolution
of the state park movement from its imprecise and largely
unconnected origins to its present status as an essential and
firmly established state government responsibility, nationwide in
scope. Because the movement has taken a number of separate, but
roughly parallel, paths and produced differing schools of thought
concerning its purpose and direction, Landrum also analyzes the
circumstances and events that have contributed to these disparate
results and offers critical commentary based on his long tenure
in the system.
As the first study of its kind, The State Park Movement in
America will fill a tremendous void in the literature on
parks. With more than five thousand state parks in the United
States, compared with fewer than five hundred national parks and
historic sites, this history is long overdue. It will be of great
interest to anyone concerned with federal, state, or local parks,
as well as to land resource managers generally.
Essentially a phenomenon of the twentieth century, America's
pioneering state park movement has grown rapidly and innovatively
to become one of the most important forces in the preservation of
open spaces and the provision of public outdoor recreation in the
country. During this time, the movement has been influenced and
shaped by many factors--social, cultural, and economic--resulting
in a wide variety of expressions. While everyone agrees that the
state park movement has been a positive and beneficial force on
the whole, there seems to be an increasing divergence of thought
as to exactly what direction the movement should take in the
future.About the Author
Ney C. Landrum is Director Emeritus of Florida State Parks, where
he developed one of the largest and most respected park systems
in the country. He is the editor of Histories of the
Southeastern State Park Systems. Now retired, he lives in
Tallahassee, Florida.
