An excellent study... If anything could possibly improve an outing to Golden Gate Park, a copy of Building San Francisco's Parks looks just the ticket. San Francisco Chronicle Terence Young's Building San Francisco's Parks is part of a rather impressive Johns Hopkins University Press 'Creating the North American Landscape' series and covers the period of expansion from 1850-1930, tracing park system history and the key individuals responsible for its development. Bookwatch 2004 Young does a splendid job detailing the political intricacies and the physical difficulties in the formation of San Francisco's park system... His distinction between the 'romantic' and the 'rationalist' approaches to the formation of the city's parks is illuminating. Newsletter of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society 2004 Written in a clear and fluid style... the book contributes a cogent examination of how landscapes are altered, land use conflicts persist, and changing expectations of nature impact park management. -- Elizabeth A. Watson CRM: Journal of Heritage Stewardship 2006 Through his engaging account of San Francisco's park system. Young illustrates the dynamic relationship between nature and society and the expectations of parks in urban social and physical planning. -- Laura Lawson Journal of the American Planning Association 2005 This comprehensive book offers fascinating insight into the process of creating and designing places for nature in the city of San Francisco, California... Reading this book will lend a new understanding of how recreational spaces such as Golden Gate Park have been strongly influenced by social ideals during the first third of the 20th century. -- Shawna J. Dark Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 2004 Mixes a nicely paced narrative with an effective analysis of the geology, climatology, botany, politics, and building of San Francisco. -- William H. Wilson Pacific Historical Review 2004 We certainly benefit from the marshaling of evidence from a surprisingly understudied city, and urban and environmental historians will find much to appreciate. -- Carl Abbott Journal of American History 2005 Building San Francisco's Parks is an important contribution to the history of parks in North America and provides a thorough case study of one of the continent's major urban park systems. -- Sean Kheraj H-Net Reviews 2009
