The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks

Williams (When Women Were Birds) presents a "personal topography," a combination travel memoir and historical study of 12 U.S. national parks. Each location presents its own challenges and controversies. The author tells of John D. Rockefeller Jr. secretly buying up land in and around Jackson Hole, with the intent of donating it toward the establishment of Grand Teton National Park. She remarks on watching American and Mexican children skipping stones back and forth across the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park and discusses the difficult, diplomatic job of the superintendent of Teddy Roosevelt National Park, in negotiating attempts by oil companies to drill on park land. She describes her discomfort at meeting a Gettysburg National Battlefield tour guide who presents the area's history with a decided Confederate bias, and a powerful visit to Alcatraz Island to see an art exhibit by imprisoned Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei. Throughout, the author emphasizes the importance of maintaining our national public green spaces and the struggle against political and environmental forces that are threatening their survival.