"From the Sierras to the Adirondacks and the Everglades, from remote wildernesses to public campgrounds and RV meccas, Dan White travels across America, searching through its history and landscapes to tell the story of how camping took hold of the national imagination and evolved alongside a changing country. Whether he has sought out the quietest place in the continental United States, gone on safari in California, or joined a girls-only adventure for urban teens, Dan White's wide-ranging enthusiasm and openness, his humor and insight reveals a vast and varied population of nature seekers, a nation still in love with its wild places"--
Have you ever been camping? Anyone who has knows that every trip tells its own story. It doesn't matter if you are in the same place, with the same people, or even the same day each year - each trip will be different. That's just the nature of the beast. In 'Under the Stars', Dan White examines camping in all its aspects, from the very beginnings (when women weren't allowed) to now, when RV's, glamping, and high-tech camping all abound.
Starting with Walden and its influence on those who escaped to the woods, White discusses the history of camping throughout the years. He covers such varied topics as the creation of the Boy Scouts (and the attendant drama with stolen ideas), Roosevelt's friendship with John Muir that helped lead him to create the National Park system, The Naked Man (Joseph Knowles), LNT hiking and the arguments about packing out your own poo...it's all here. And it makes for interesting reading, though it's definitely not like a fiction book that anyone will be racing through.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, and it did give me a new appreciation for the art of camping. I'm looking forward to camping more this summer with the my kids so that they, in their turn, can learn the passion and pain of camping.
