The Appalachian Trail

May 1, 2021

In this debut, D'Anieri (urban and regional planning, Univ. of Michigan) offers a unique narrative of the Appalachian Trail, told through the lives of people who envisioned and sculpted it. D'Anieri uncovers the trail's overlooked history: the lobby for federal funding; its rerouting due to scenic parkways built along ridgetops; neglect during and after World War II; and complicated land deals to secure passageway for a continuous trail. Along the way, D'Anieri sheds light on the Swiss scientist who brought the term Appalachian into common use, as well as early advocates for a national trail, and National Park Service staff. Thru-hiking memoirs may be the current rage, but they wouldn't exist without the passion and fortitude of the individuals outlined here. D'Anieri closes by exploring the whiteness of the trail's user base, which advocates are working to diversify. He also finds solutions for ecological damage caused by the trail. VERDICT For readers interested in the outdoors. The complicated and colorful people who brought the AT to life deliver a distinctive view of its creation.--Zebulin Evelhoch, Deschutes P.L., OR

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 10, 2021
In this engrossing debut, urban planning professor D’Anieri takes a breezy trek through the century-long history of the Appalachian Trail. To provide a glimpse of the life of this well-traversed place as it’s developed over time, he compiles profiles of the individuals who shaped it. In the late 1920s, for example, Horace Kephart—who helped establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—was instrumental in devising the trail’s southern end, after its founding by Benton MacKaye in 1921, who saw it as “a recreational preserve to serve the people.” D’Anieri also chronicles the trail’s early hikers, among them Earl Shaffer—a “young loner” who charted paths in 1948 for others to follow—and Emma Gatewood, a septuagenarian who cared less about the “purity of nature” than the freedom the walk provided. Meanwhile, Bill Bryson’s influential book A Walk in the Woods—about his time on the trail—is given a local interpretation with criticism from the Appalachian Trail Club for its “apparent disinterest in the trail’s larger ideals.” In genial prose, D’Anieri captures the trail’s majesty and its power to inspire those who ramble on it. Hikers will be captivated by the rich history, as well as those in need of inspiration for their next escape. Agent: Regina Ryan, Regina Ryan Books.

August 20, 2021
Not a history of the Appalachian Trail, nor a description of it, D'Anieri's account of the 2,100-mile-long hiking route profiles 12 individuals integral to its creation and popularity. As he tells their stories, beginning with Arnold Guyot, who made pioneering surveys of the Appalachian Mountains, D'Anieri illuminates concepts and purposes his subjects believed the trail was meant to serve. Introducing Homer Kephart, a librarian who in 1903 lost his job due, in part, to his avidity for camping in the Ozark Mountains D'Anieri describes his move to the Great Smoky Mountains, and how through his influential writings on the development of outdoor recreation, Kephart successfully promoted the range's conversion into a national park, through which the future Appalachian Trail would go. By his death in 1931, the trail was well under way, thanks to exertions by James Taylor, Benton MacKaye, and Myron Avery. Taylor's significance lies in establishing the first segment, called the Long Trail, in Vermont. MacKaye may be the most important person in D'Anieri's gallery. A forester by training and a socialist by conviction, he conceived of the trail not solely as a ridge-line path of perambulation, but, to quote the subtitle of his 1921 manifesto, "A Project in Regional Planning." MacKaye wanted the trail to preserve the landscape as a way of reforming society. Productive of ideas, MacKaye had not the organizational skills to construct the trial. Those were wielded by Avery, maritime lawyer by day, Appalachian Trial commander-in-chief in his every spare moment, driving it to completion in 1937. Ensuing decades saw the trail gain prominence from hikers hiking its entire length, maintenance and protection by the National Park Service, and Bill Bryson's 1998 bestseller A Walk in the Woods. Combining interesting biographies with the past century's growth of environmentalism, D'Anieri will satisfy aficionados of both.

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Starred review from April 15, 2021
Superbly rendered biographies of the adventurers who were instrumental in conceiving, building, popularizing, and sustaining the storied Appalachian Trail. D'Anieri, a lecturer in architecture, regional planning, and the environment at the University of Michigan, is a former journalist, a background that serves him well in this account of the development of the 2,100-mile AT. The author opens with a concise survey of the Appalachian range's geological past, but he is clear in his intent for the narrative. This book, he writes, "is not a comprehensive history of every aspect of the Appalachian Trail's development, and it is even less about the details of hiking on the trail. It is a biography: an attempt to render something essential about the life of this place by looking at how it developed over time." His character studies are uniformly fascinating, as readers learn far more than expected about these obsessive, sometimes cranky creators. No romanticist, D'Anieri also asks, and usually answers, salient if seldom-asked questions: Whom is the trail for? How reflective of the "natural" world is it? Is the human past of this unique and ever changing landscape of any consequence? Hitting the AT himself (in fits and starts), he approached it like any other research project, probing for noteworthy features and how its history casts light on today's trail. While knowing the history of the AT punctures some of the aura, the reality still has the power to inspire--even if, compared to the grand vistas of the American West, the AT is more immersive than scenic. In exploring the trail's "collage of aspirations and associations," D'Anieri has gone a long way toward discovering its identity. Thankfully, the tone is by no means academic but rather as accessible as the author believes the AT should be. Fans of A Walk in the Woods will also enjoy the chapter on Bill Bryson. An incisive take on an American treasure that shines with illuminating detail and insight.

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