Were National Parks Actually Mexico’s Best Idea?

“On the eve of the Second World War, Mexico led the world in number of national parks. The Mexican government designated hundreds of thousands of hectares in fourteen states as national parks by 1940, during a time when the country was still recovering from the tumultuous revolution and civil war of the century’s second decade. Although the idea of national parks is typically associated with being the “best idea” of the United States, it was Mexico that led the way in the 1930s. Why Mexico?

In Revolutionary Parks, Emily Wakild tells us that the parks communicated the ideals of the social revolution in Mexico, espousing social justice while implementing the tools of rational science.”

Prof. Jacob Darwin Hamblin leads an all star cast in another excellent H-Environment Roundtable Review.   Panelists this time include:  Sterling Evans, the Louise Welsh Chair of History at the University of Oklahoma; Adrian Howkins, Associate Professor of History at Colorado State University, Fort Collins; Curt Meine, an expert on Aldo Leopold and is a scholar of conservation principles; and Cynthia Radding, is Gussenhoven Distinguished Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of History at the University of North Carolina.

Read more @ on Jake’s website and/or on h-net.