Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism in the American West

by David Wrobel (Editor), PatrickLong (Editor)

New
Illustrated
2001
$34.08

This work explores the history of tourism in the American West and examines its effects on both the tourists and the places and people they visit. Scholars join government and National Park Service professionals to investigate the dilemmas that tourism poses for western communities, from economic and environmental questions to cultural change. The selections are organized around three broad topics: scholarly perceptions of tourism, tourists, and those toured upon; tourism in its historical context, including an assessment of its cultural impact on communities and on tourists themselves; and the history and impact of tourism on the West's national parks, with particular emphasis on efforts to maintain the delicate balance between natural preservation and public enjoyment.

Synopsis

This work explores the history of tourism in the American West and examines its effects on both the tourists and the places and people they visit. Scholars join government and National Park Service professionals to investigate the dilemmas that tourism poses for western communities, from economic and environmental questions to cultural change. The selections are organized around three broad topics: scholarly perceptions of tourism, tourists, and those toured upon; tourism in its historical context, including an assessment of its cultural impact on communities and on tourists themselves; and the history and impact of tourism on the West's national parks, with particular emphasis on efforts to maintain the delicate balance between natural preservation and public enjoyment.

$34.08

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 328
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 31 May 2001
ISBN 10: 0700610839
ISBN 13: 9780700610839

Media Reviews

This book is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about tourism in western America. It conveniently collects important scholarship in the field, making it available to the academic community and students of the American West. --New Mexico Historical Review

This collection deserves an audience as diverse as the contributors. The future of Western cultural uniqueness and economic development largely depends upon the wisdom with which we deal with tourism --The Historian

A highly recommended read for scholars, planners, environmentalists, and those engaged in the tourism industry. For historians, the book suggests questions on a wide range of issues to keep future generations fruitfully occupied. --Journal of Arizona History

There has been no shortage of hype and shallow thinking about the role of tourism in the modern West--but there has been a severe shortage of the kind of wisdom that comes from thinking hard and historically about tourism. This book offers the region that kind of wisdom. --Daniel Kemmis, Director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West and author of Community and the Politics of Place

Seeing and Being Seen goes to the heart of the dilemmas of tourism in the western United States. . . . Insightful, provocative, and engagingly written, it is a valuable book for anyone with an interest in tourism--from park managers, community leaders, and students of the West to all of us in our recurrent roles as tourists. --Chris Wilson, author of The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern Regional Tradition

Author Bio

David Wrobel is associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and coeditor of Many Wests: Place, Culture, and Regional Identity, also from Kansas. Patrick Long is professor of tourism management at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and author of Win, Lose or Draw? Gambling with America's Small Towns.