10 h 29 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Granite walls, geysers, and giant trees fill a wild West that John Muir fears is being cut, burned, and grazed away.
In Our National Parks, naturalist John Muir takes you into Yellowstone, Yosemite, the giant sequoia groves, and the forests of the Cascades. These essays follow him as he walks, climbs, camps, and watches. Geysers, waterfalls, meadows, and mountain forests become places to linger, not just names on a map.
Alongside that wonder runs an urgent argument. Muir sees sheep, fire, and axes threatening the country he loves, and he calls for firm public protection. From the wild parks and forest reservations to the trees of the Sierra Nevada, he asks what wilderness gives ordinary people—and what disappears when it is lost.
What you’ll discover
- Yellowstone's volcanic wonders Explore geysers and a high volcanic landscape through Muir's close attention to wild places.
- Yosemite's granite and water Follow Muir into the Merced Valley, beneath sheer walls and beside waterfalls and meadows.
- Forests with distinct lives Discover how pines, firs, and cedars find their places across the Sierra's slopes.
- The giant sequoia groves Meet enormous trees whose reddish bark and great age draw Muir's particular care.
- A demand for protection Consider Muir's insistence that parks need real public care, not merely boundaries on maps.
Who will love it
For readers who love hiking, camping, mountains or the history of conservation, and anyone curious about how the American park idea was argued for.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A wild West under threat in 1901
- Going to the mountains is going home
- Yellowstone is a fire-worked wonderland
- Yosemite shows what ice and water can carve
- Trees are the Sierra's great teachers
- The giant sequoias are living monuments
- Sheep, fire and axes are the enemies
- Federal protection is the cure he urges
- What the book changed and what remains debated
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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I nostri parchi nazionali
by John Muir · 1901
John Muir takes you among Yosemite's granite walls and giant sequoias, arguing for protection from fire and logging.
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In short
Our National Parks is a book of essays by John Muir, the Scottish-born naturalist who made the Sierra Nevada of California his home. It appeared in 1901, when Muir was in his sixties.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wild West under threat in 1901
To understand Our National Parks, you need to picture the American West at the turn of the twentieth century. Railroads had crossed the continent. Sawmills, mining camps, sheep ranches and farms were spreading into country that had been quiet for thousands of years. Many Americans saw the forests as an endless supply of lumber and the grasslands as free pasture.
Muir had watched this change with his own eyes. He first walked into the Sierra Nevada in 1868 and spent years there, studying glaciers, trees and meadows. He wrote about them for magazines, and he helped found the Sierra Club in 1892, serving as its first president. By 1901 he was a writer with a loyal audience and a growing circle of allies in government.
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What is Our National Parks by John Muir about?
It is a set of essays describing Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Sierra forests, the giant sequoias and other western lands, while arguing that they need strong public protection from grazing, fire and reckless logging.
When was Our National Parks written?
John Muir published it in 1901. Most chapters had earlier appeared as magazine essays, including pieces in the Atlantic Monthly, and they are accounts of places Muir had visited and studied himself.
Is Our National Parks hard to read?
No. Muir writes in a lively, direct style with clear arguments. The book is easy to follow and works well in short sittings.
The author
John Muir
1838–1914 · Scottish-American naturalist
John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838. He moved to Wisconsin in 1849 and later lived in California. He was a naturalist and helped found the Sierra Club in 1892. His books include Our National Parks (1901) and My First Summer in the Sierra (1911). He died in 1914.
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