Creating Wilderness ― A Transnational History of the Swiss National Park

The Swiss National Park was the first national park in Europe, but was much different in origin than American parks like Yellowstone. From the beginning the park was designed as a collaboration between the state and scientific research, which has influenced the course of national parks worldwide. Patrick Kupper uses the Swiss National Park as a grounding point to explore national parks as a global phenomenon. Covering topics such as the development of the Swiss Commission for Nature Protection and the philosophy of “total protection,” the scope of this book ranges from local to global to more fully understand the history of national parks. This is the first time that the history of the Swiss National Park has been told in its entirety. Annotation c2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Patrick Kupper is Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Innsbruck. He is the co-editor of Civilizing Nature: National Parks in Global Historical Perspective (Berghahn, 2012).