Great Smokies: From Natural Habitat To National Park [Hardcover]

Daniel S. Pierce (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press; 1st edition (August 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572330767
• ISBN-13: 978-1572330764
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,868,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel S. (Dan) Pierce is associate professor and chair of the history department at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is a graduate of Western Carolina University (B.S.Ed.), the University of Alabama (M.A. History), and the University of Tennessee (Ph.D. History). At UNCA, he teaches classes in Appalachian and Southern History, the Civil War, Writing and History, and Environmental History. His research focuses on the Great Smoky Mountains, Southern Appalachian history, the history of Moonshining, and NASCAR history.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A political history of the national park, December 30, 2008

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Great Smokies: From Natural Habitat To National Park (Paperback)

This book provides a good history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The subtitle tells you Pierce's emphasis: he sets the stage with some natural history and then moves to the battle to create the park. This campaign stretches across several chapters and makes up the meat of the book. He concludes with one chapter on the management of the park after establishment, and a conclusion that reflects on the park that we have today.

That capsule summary also lays out the main contrast with Margaret Brown's _The Wild East_, another history of the park that I recommend. Brown is more interested in the people of the region, especially the Cherokees and white mountaineers that lived in the Smokies before park establishment. She also tells us about how the Eastern Band Cherokees related to the park, and ended up profiting from it. In contrast, Pierce puts much greater emphasis on the political and legislative history of park establishment, and on the fundraising campaign to raise money to buy the park land. While Brown talks of the lumbermen, Pierce tells us of the timber companies and their fight against the park.

I recommend both books, but your choice of which book to read first really depends on your purpose (or interest). I hope the preceding paragraph helps.

4.0 out of 5 stars good read, December 27, 2011

By 

doughboy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Smokies: From Natural Habitat To National Park (Paperback)

Just read this book and it was an interesting read. Good backgound on the struggle to make the Smokies a National Park (I am glad they did).