Since the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the national park movement has spread quickly and internationally. There are now over seven thousand national parks in 140 countries, and these numbers continue to grow. But national parks are facing new challenges in the modern age, such as rapid environmental change, the worldwide recession, and political pressures of varying degrees.
In this richly illustrated and beautifully designed volume, Randolph Delehanty presents a diverse group of national parks from the United States, East Africa, Italy, Australia, Amazonia, and Tibet. Originally published to coincide with an exhibition at the Presidio of San Francisco, Crown Jewels: Five Great National Parks Around the World and the Challenges They Face is organized into portraits of each park, complete with gorgeous images from internationally renowned photographers and incisive analyses by park experts from each region. Serving as both a testament to the beauty of the natural world and a timely call to action, Crown Jewels: Five Great National Parks Around the World and the Challenges They Face shows us that the world's stunning national parks are an irreplaceable resource with an uncertain future – and all of us are key to securing that future.
Randolph Delehanty is a historian and exhibitions curator at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was the founding director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, and has taught at San Francisco State University. He is the author of books on California, the American West, and the South.