It's just plain boring and badly researched. There isn't much here anyway.

I bought this book to give as a gift to my cousin, who was originally from Oak Park. The book was an instant hit with her. When I looked at the book, it gave me a great stroll down memory lane. This book is well written and researched, but it's the illustrations that were the highlight. Thanks, Mr. Sokol, for the memories!!!

If you really want to learn about the plants and animals from an author who has been raised in Georgia, please take a look at the Highroad Guide to the Georgia Coast & Okefenokee by Richard J. Lenz.

The maps in the back of the book are from satellite images. I found the canoe trail information on these maps far superior to the information offered by the Fish and Wildlife "free" maps. The book is small enough to put in a plastic bag, and strap to your gear in the canoe so that you can know right where you are, even without a GPS.

The content is certainly worth studying before selecting the kind of trip you want to make to the swamp. The information about the creatures and the plants you are likely to encounter made the entire experience more enjoyable. I would have rated the book higher if it would have communicated more of the sheer beauty of the Okefenokee... but then a reader might consider the book a "puff" piece.

M.L. Brown's The Wild East: A Biography of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is the amazing story of the centerpiece of eastern wilderness. Introducing herself and her work with a refreshing and highly personal account, Brown immediately enlightens the reader as to her motivations. What proceeds is a history that is so meticulously researched that the wildness of the park seems almost suburban, making The Wild East simultaneously fascinating and slightly disappointing. But pathos is bound to ensue after the mythical GSMNP is taken off of its pedestal, and Brown delivers a heavy dose of reality by focusing on prior land use within the park, the contradictions of park management, and the nebulous concept of 'wilderness'. The result is an accurate account of the park's creation that de-shrouds it of some of its wild mystery, an effect that might not be enjoyed by every reader.

In Brown's defense, she had few complete histories of the park to update and examine (outside of D.S. Pierce's The Great Smokies), and the litany of personal accounts, newspaper articles, and other histories that she unearths make for a tremendous piece of scholarship. Brown leaves no stone unturned in describing the opportunism of the Tennesseans and consternation of the North Carolineans, and she fully reviews both sides of every major argument that enveloped the park to the present. Of particular interest is her focus on making the history of park and area residents seem less like 'hillbillies' and more like average Americans of a century ago, with many personal accounts of day-to-day Appalachian life.

But missing in her attempt to please everybody is a sense of the rancor and vitriol that must have surrounded the park's formation, guided by a healthy dose of eccentricity from all of the wonderful folk who gave a hand in helping of hindering the park's will to survive. Her most flagrant omission is an unbiased discussion Horace Kephart and his contributions to both regional anthropology and the park's development; Kephart is only mentioned in passing. For a park with such a dynamic history, one might wish for a more dynamic story, with a greater sense of the conflict and character that makes the Great Smoky Mountains the centerpiece of eastern wilderness.

Again, a good portion of the park was settled, and thus its status as 'wilderness' is a matter of debate. To this end Brown inexplicably addresses eminent environmental historian William Cronon on the topic of wilderness in her conclusion, which is a departure from her storyline and should have been omitted. Had she debated wilderness directly throughout the book her conclusion would not be so disjoint.

An argument that Brown does develop is the issue of land management both within and around the park, with a focus on the Gatlinburg area and conflict surrounding park managers and policies. Her bear management discussion is particularly strong, as is the history of contrasting land development on the North Carolina and Tennessee sides of the park and park management of Cades' Cove.

In short, despite its shortcomings, The Wild East is a necessary read for all GSMNP enthusiasts. Brown's honest history might make the park lose some of its luster, but will also surely create new leagues fans for the dynamic GSMNP.

Margaret Lynn Brown's "The Wild East" is an important contribution to the field of environmental history. The author seems to know the region where the Great Smoky Mountains is in, well. She traces the history of the Smokies and of the people living there. She analyzes how the Smokies came to be under the federal government's jurisdiction and how the landscape was changed profoundly.

What I find most interesting is the attempt by a superintendent's effort to preserve the mountains as pristine as possible but he came up with some strong objections by surrounding residents who were concern about bringing money in to the region. Also, surrounding towns began to flourish as attractions like Ripley Believe it or Not and even Dollywood became the focus of tourists going to the Smokies to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It's almost ironic that there is such drastic difference between the Smokies, where wilderness is preserve and the very commericialized towns surrounding the mountains.

i think this book was really bad because it had none of the good stuff of the real book by Micheal Chrigton . So in conclusion i only gave this book one star because it was the lowest .

This book is based on the movie "The Lost World." The book lets the reader make different choices throughout the book. I think this book is alright, because you are involved with the story but it can be a little confusing,but I thought the book was alright.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The details kept the book flowing easily and kept my interset. The way he wrote the book really made it hard to put it down. There was a lot of action and suspense in the novel that added to the feel of the book. I would say that the book is really close to another of the authors novels Jurassic Park. It was really similar but I would have to say that Jurassic Park was alittle better.

Mark David Spence has crafted a fascinating look at three national parks: Yellowstone, Glacier, and Yosemite through the filter, the lense as it were, of Native American presence.

Citizens of the United States did not always see the national parks in terms of an empty wilderness, untrodden by human footsteps. Rather, early on in the 19th century Americans, such as Catlin for example, tended to look at the wilderness in its 'natural' state, that is, its condition before European conquest, advancement, and domination. This state, therefore, included the presence of Native Americans within these three national parks. This presence took on, at times, both a temporary or a permanent character.

Although the book can read with a pace that only a historian would love, there are sufficient insights to enlighten even the armchair historian. Perhaps one of the most fascinating facets is the role that John Muir took in defining Yosemite as a region that should be absent of the Native Americans, the very people who had dwelt in the Valley for centuries. His comments could easily be construed as racist, naive, and bigoted.

I cautiously recommend this book to you, although personally I found it fascinating.

I bought this book and was given a copy of the Moon guide to Yosemite. The Lonely Planet guide has color photos but what I really needed was help in planning a big family and friends camping trip. The Moon guide had a lot of information about different ways to "do" Yosemite, it was more like a guide tha Lonely Planet's book. The outdoor recreation coverage was better too.

The pictures are wonderful....but pictures without any background are only of so much value. These pictures would have made great inserts into a book on any of these parks....but as a stand-alone book, they certainly aren't worth the money.