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What is the Purpose of the National Parks? Teaching the Course “History of America’s National Parks”

Creative Commons 'BY-NC' version 4.0 license
Abstract

For the past several years I have taught HIST 476: History of America’s National Parks. Created by one of my predecessors at Colorado State University, the class introduces students to the major events that have shaped the national parks over the past 200 years. Unlike many upper-division history courses, the majority of the students in the class are not history majors. And so, I have had to think about how to teach an upper-division history course to primarily non-majors.