American Covenant: National Parks, Their Promise, and Our Nation's Future

by Michael A Soukup, Gary E Machlis

An intimate and candid account of our national parks detailing their strengths, vulnerabilities, and essential role in American life

“Essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of America’s national parks.”—John Miles, National Parks Traveler

Part memoir, part critique, and a paean to the value of national parks, American Covenant distills the experience and insights from two long careers in conservation. Michael A. Soukup and Gary E. Machlis show how the national parks are essential to maintaining the essence of our national heritage, and key to America’s future in a changing climate and political landscape.
 
Sharing real-world examples of both victories and defeats in protecting national parks, this candid, thoughtful book reminds us that the national parks are a promise—a covenant—within and between generations of Americans. The book is also a call to revitalize, reconstitute, reconfigure, and reform the National Park Service, which the authors believe is governed too much by outdated management practices and politics instead of a foundation of expertise and science.

Genres: Audiobook

216 pages, Hardcover

First published March 23, 2021

Reviews

[James Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Covenant is a modern advocacy from Soukup and Machlis, for the status, benefit, and continued preservation of the parks system in an ever uncertain future. It’s also part memoir and critique of the administrative and policy chronology of individual parks and the system as a whole organism. The US National and state parks are jewels, exemplary of the American spirit–and occasionally at odds with the U.S.’ more aggressive tendencies which foster production, consumption, and private ownership.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall boring but with some interesting points isolated in long droughts of text.