cover image Adirondacks

Adirondacks

Paul Schneider. Henry Holt & Company, $25 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-3490-5

Economics, politics and human folly play as large a role in this history of the Adirondacks as do preservation of species or natural habitats. Noting that since Europeans arrived on the continent, the ""meaning and value of `wilderness' has been in flux,"" journalist Schneider focuses in his first book on what people have done to the vast region now comprising the Adirondacks Park. Here people have hunted for subsistence and trapped furs for huge global markets; fought military battles and speculated on real estate; built dams, mines, farms, sawmills and railroads; sought refuge from urban ills. The region inspired huge contradictions: ""I once saw one of our neighbors in full evening dress and bedecked with diamonds paddling a canoe... en route to a dinner at the Vanderbilts,"" remembered one summer resident. Schneider's anecdotal approach highlights ironies that still define the region today. Residents and environmentalists continue to seek compromises on logging, trapping and zoning, with uncertain results. Schneider weaves engaging first-person accounts of such issues into his fascinating--if sometimes too digressive--history, effectively showing the problems facing those charged with the mission of preserving the wilderness. The book is well illustrated with b&w archival photos and prints, as well as two regional maps not seen by PW. Rights (except first serial and electronic): Witherspoon Associates. (May)