The Wild East: A Biography of the Great Smoky Mountains (New Perspectives on the History of the South)

Explores the social, political, and environmental changes in the Great Smoky Mountains during the 19th & 20th centuries. Although this national park is often portrayed as a triumph of preservation, Brown concludes that the largest forested region in the eastern US is actually a re-created wilderness-a product of restoration & even manipulation of the land. Park management continues to waffle between shifting views of wilderness, negotiating the contradictory mission of promoting tourism and preservation.