Richard Grusin's innovative study investigates how the establishment of national parks contributed to the development of American national identity after the Civil War. Although parks are seen as an uncomplicated means of environmental preservation, Grusin argues that they must also be understood as complex cultural technologies dedicated to the reproduction of nature as landscape art. He explores the origins of America's three major parks—Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon—in relationship to other forms of landscape representation, including photography, mapping, travel writing and fiction.