Book Review: Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism

Authors

Cornelia F. Mutel, University of IowaFollow

Document Type

General Interest Article

Abstract

Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism. Rebecca Conard. 1997. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Iowa. XV + 382 pages. ISBN 0-87745-558-9.

Well administered, parks become much more than havens for birds and flowers, much more than game-preserves, a refuge for life of every sort; even more than a play-ground for all the people ... [The well administered park] shall show us real democracy.

So began one of Iowa's preeminent natural historians, Thomas Macbride, in an early-20th-century (1922) address on the status of Iowa's parks. And so Rebecca Conard begins her late-20th-century analysis of the development of Iowa's parks and preserves. Macbride's quote reflects the multiplicity of expectations that were placed upon parks - for wild species, humans, and society. Conard traces this complex story out in its fullness, outlining the ongoing attempts to balance the pressures for various recreational uses of public lands with the need to conserve natural features and resources.

Publication Date

September 1999

Journal Title

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

106

Issue

3

First Page

66

Last Page

67

Copyright

© Copyright 1999 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Mutel, Cornelia F. (1999) "Book Review: Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism," Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS, 106(3), 66-67.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/jias/vol106/iss3/5