Product Description
Acclaimed by The New York Times Book Review for his "major contribution to the literature of environmental studies," Stephen J. Pyne now focuses on the Grand Canyon he fell in love with during his fifteen years as a firefighter there. Merging environmental, social, intellectual, political, and economic history, How the Canyon Became Grand is both a chronicle of discovery, from Spanish conquistadors to exploring geologists like John Wesley Powell and Clarence Dutton, and a provocative explanation of how the Canyon found its niche in the American psyche.Spurned as worthless by the first Spanish explorers, it took three more centuries of desultory contact, and major shifts in Western attitudes toward nature, geology, and the land itself, before a complex coalescence of science, art, literature, nationalism, and personalities turned the Canyon, within a handful of years, into a cultural emblem. Today it attracts over five million sightseers a year, and is regarded as one of the great natural wonders of the world. Yet it continues to be the focus of national debates, particularly about the character of American environmentalism. This extraordinary book, complete with photographs, maps, and charts, but sized to fit into any backpack, casts fascinating new light on a natural phenomenon that mirrors the making of our nation. Atour de force.Amazon.com Review
Arizona-based environmental historian Stephen J. Pyne hasfought fires on the Grand Canyon's north and south rims, traveled onfoot and muleback into its depths, floated its length down theColorado River, explored its hidden recesses--and spent years lookinginto its history, especially into what he deems the "intellectualmiracle" of the canyon's transformation into a celebrated symbol ofthe American wild lands.

American explorers, who first came to the canyon's walls after theU.S. took the Southwest as the spoils of victory over Mexico, wereinclined to describe it in harsh terms. As Lt. Joseph Ives remarked ina report to Congress in 1858, "The region is, of course, altogethervalueless...." But 11 years later, when John Wesley Powell surveyedthe length of the Colorado River, he brought to the canyon a poetic,even romantic sensibility.Through Powell and his companions,especially the geologist Clarence Dutton, the harsh landscape of theGrand Canyon would come to be regarded as "the coliseums, temples, andstatuary of an inspired nature."

"The Canyon claims standing," Pyne remarks, "not because of its sizeor antiquity but ... by virtue of its ever-evolving ensemble and theideas continually made available by which to interpret it." Thoseideas--from men and women like Theodore Roosevelt, Wallace Stegner,Joseph Wood Krutch, Edward Abbey, and Ann Zwinger--would come toinfluence the national discussion on all public lands. As such, Pynesuggests, the Grand Canyon became a laboratory for the environmentalmovement as a whole, influential far beyond the borders of the aridSouthwest--in short, as Pyne calls it, "a planetary monument."--Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Tedious prose but useful information in first two parts
As other reviewers say, Pyne's prose is unnecessarily tedious.There are many extraneous references to other cultural and scientific developments.But the first two parts contain useful information.I would give it a higher rating if the third part were as useful as the first two.

The text has three parts: Two New Worlds (Western civilizations finding the canyon, and reaction of the early explorers), Rim and River (development of a geological understanding and artistic appreciation of the canyon), Canyon and Cosmos (relation to 20th century ideas in other fields).The first two parts are worth reading, even if the prose is often pretentious.However, it helps to know something about the geological developments and the work of the artists who painted the canyon (there are a very few illustrations of their work).

The last part can be (likely should be) skipped.Pyne compares the lack of new knowledge about the canyon to progress in physics and mathematics (without specifying what he has in mind about mathematics) and new developments in art.Much of the prose is pretentious gobbledegook.It's not clear what new knowledge and cultural thinking he expects to be stimulated by work related to the canyon.Pyne denigrates ease of access to the canyon rim and popular appreciation of it.It's not clear what he expects; the canyon could hardly tolerate hundreds of thousands of river runners and backpackers each year.Pyne summarizes environmental matters (proposals to dam the Colorado) briefly, with less emphasis than the canyon's influence deservers.As a minor criticism, David Brower was executive director (not "head") of the Sierra Club.

The book does have 9 useful figures, including bar charts showing time trends of numbers of river runners and numbers of publications.

Interesting ideas and information, but socially very biased
This book like others on the Grand Canyon's history as national monument discusses various visits by European and US explorers.Dr. Pyne's book approaches the topic from a different slant. By focusing on the effect of cultural and psychological filters he explains why the geologic phenomenon has been valued differently through time.Especially in this book as unlike others, the author shows why the canyon was "seen" or not and why parts were included in an individual's perspective or not.This was something new to me, something that is apparent once voiced but not necessarily obvious until pointed out.

I once took a speech-communications class called "persuasion" in the course of which it became obvious that 1. context contributes a great deal to message, and 2. not all communication is intended.At the time it struck me that the dead communicate, namely the most salient point about themselves, ie. that they are dead, however few would say that they "intended" to do so.Likewise, a canyon or other environmental configuration can communicate to an observer, but the message sent and received is determined by the filters of the recipient, his/her cultural, social, and psychological context.Pyne's book makes it evident that the message of the Grand Canyon is different for each age and for each person, and is shaped as much by our expectations and cultural orientations as by anything else.He does an excellant job of showing how the canyon and the Colorado River have changed their cultural identity through time, even in our own time.

For those looking for something of a biography of the discoverers of the Canyon and explorers of the Colorado River system, this is probably a less detailed book than you might like.A more thorough account is available in The Grand Canyon:Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle by James Lawrence Powell.It does include a bibliography of works, however, including some of the original publications by the 19th century explorers themselves.These might provide you with more of what you're looking for, particularly accounts by John Westly Powell.For those looking for a brief overview, however, this will certainly provide you with a good start.Although I've studied geology, the geology and history of the Colorado was not familiar to me, so I found the book helpful.

I was not entirely certain I agreed with the author's rather vaunted sense of "elite" and "intellectual," and his negative attitude toward popular-that is middle class-culture.I agree that we are given to commercialism and mass consumerism, but that pretty much cuts across the social boundaries.There are reasons why the 19th century wealthy could endow entire museums with their private art collections and furnish their homes in wall to wall Tiffanies.The difference between middle class and upper class consumerism appears to be the expense of the items purchased.I see no difference in the desire of a middle class individual to investigate the unique in his/her environment than in that of a wealthy, educated individual pursuing his or hers.If anything, it would appear to have been the spread of education throughout society during the latter part of the 19th century and earlier portion of the 20ieth that gave more people access to the information and orientation that allowed more people to appreciate something like the Grand Canyon.

I also disagreed with the author's by-the-by negative attitude toward the "Democrates" at whose doorstep he laid the building of dams and other projects.I do agree that doing so damaged a scenic environment of great value emotionally to the nation, I even agree that it was environmentally an unsound decision.But given the information at the time, the needs and social issues of the time, the decisions made may have appeared acceptable to those who made them at the time.Twenty-twenty hind-sight and values based on modern perspectives is a waste of time.It's usefulness is questionable, like exhuming Attila the Hun and trying him posthumously for crimes against humanity; what's the point? We too will be judged in our turn by the future, and who knows what "crimes" we will be determined to have committed?

Poetic History of the Grand Canyon
The author provides a detailed history of the Grand Canyon in a more poetic and spiritual sense. Thus, it may be more appropriate for someone that appreciates prose and an appreciation for language. If you are looking for a more straightforward history of the Grand Canyon, this book is probably not for you. I fell into the latter category and on my vacation to the Grand Canyon; I was looking more for an industrious quick read, which this book is not. I was amused that the author seemed so surprised that the Conquistadors did not write much at all about the Grand Canyon but where we today appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the Canyon, the Conquistadors in their search for gold may have been more perplexed in how to get to the other side.

Take this off the Gift Shop Shelves!
I agree with most of the reviews here.I'm not sure why this book was included at the gift shop at the Grand Canyon.I'd better imagine it gathering dust on a shelf at an academic library, where it belongs.On my honeymoon out west, I continually tried to read this book, but every time I picked it up, I was confused and frustrated with the deliberately obtuse and arrogant language Pyne uses throughout this impenetrable tome.As most other reviewers said--view the canyon through your own eyes and avoid this book at all costs

Great intellectual history
This book is a great intellectual history of a subject that tends to be considered so trite as to be mundane.In the course of the 20th Century the wonders of the Grand Canyon have been so often noted that they have become a cliche of commercialism. Pyne takes us back to the Spanish explorers and helps us to understand why their intellectual powers were inadequate to interpret the meaning of the Canyon when they first encountered it.Pyne describes 3 great ages of exploration, and devotes considerable space to the explanation of the geology of the canyon, first discovered in the late 1800's by John Wesley Powell and his associates.He also makes frequent reference to the human representation of the Canyon in art; he considers this, it would appear, to be as significant as its geology. He relates this art to the modernistic movements in Europe. He describes the advent of commercialism and of the ecology movement by men like Joseph Wood Krutch, who wanted the Canyon maintained in its pristine state for the enjoyment of all. He describes how the Canyon has become less important in scientific circles with the advent of the theory of plate tectonics and of crater impact zones, of space exploration. ... Read more