The establishment of national parks has been framed as a heroic success of proclaimed American ideals, including that of democracy. However, such histories neglect (and even obscure) the intimate relationship between U.S. imperialism and the construction and implementation of the national parks. In this thesis, I argue that National parks were born of U.S. imperialism and became a conscious and effective tool for the empire's legitimation and preservation in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. The national parks served as empire-sustaining projects in three main respects. First, empires are by necessity land-based projects that hinge upon the acquisition of and control over territory and its human and non-human resources, as are national parks. Secondly, how these resources and inhabitants are managed relates to the political economy, in our case capitalism. And finally, as an ideological project, national parks worked to craft U.S. nationalism, all while diminishing the tensions inherent in the previous two points. Previous narratives have failed to place appropriate emphasis on the imperial policies, precedents, and motivations which guided the creation of national parks and required such a dramatic reframing in democratic terms.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["National parks","Imperialism","Wilderness"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 23921