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National Pedagogy at a Natural Wonder

其他書名	Remaking Postwar American Citizens in Yellowstone National Park, 1945 to 1973
出版	Haverford College, 2018
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=PqM9wAEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋When World War II ended in 1945, Americans flocked to Yellowstone National Park in unprecedented numbers. Since congress established Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872, notions of American distinction, endurance, and abundance had been observed in and associated with this uniquely preserved landscape. However, as the United States transitioned from years of wartime sacrifice to the onset of mass consumerism and emerging Cold War anxieties, Yellowstone ascended to a higher level of significance in defining the new America. This thesis considers the ways in which political and cultural forces unleashed by the end of World War II circulated through Yellowstone and at the Old Faithful geyser from 1945 to 1973. While visiting Yellowstone provided visitors the opportunity to autonomously explore and inhabit a wild landscape, the National Park Service and the federal government also designed the park experience to pedagogically enhance citizenship. During the 1950's, the prosperity of the national growth economy became deeply intertwined with the mass production of weapons, causing the foundations of postwar American life to be rooted in violence and uncertainty about the threat of war. As a result, Yellowstone became a haven for postwar Americans. By channeling millions of dollars towards improving the Yellowstone landscape through the Mission 66 initiative, the government invested in the park as a site for teaching American values and citizenship. Through interpretation programs, which engaged visitors with scienfitic and historical information about the park in an interactive way, the government sought to ennoble Americans as vigilant, observant, and thoughtful Cold War civilians and consumers. However, by the 1960s, it became clear to the National Park Service that such exuberant consumerism and visitation at the park were not sustainable amidst the rise of ecological consciousness.