"As I look back over my nearly forty years of national park experiences, I can reflect both on our accomplishments of the past and our challenges into the future. We need periodic reminders, like this fine book, of how far we have come, most often the result of dedicated citizens and professionals. We also need inspiration and optimism that we will succeed in caring for these special places. Within these pages I invite you to wander but, more importantly, to spend time with the Big Trees, for they have seen many challenges, and yet they still stand."
—Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director, National Park Service

"Well written and meticulously researched, the book provides a detailed chronological history of the key actors, events, and policy initiatives that shaped conservation management in both parks." (read the full review here, pdf)
—Randall K. Wilson, Gettysburg College, Journal of Historical Geography 64 (2019) 104-120

"Big Trees and the Giant Forest, Kings Canyon and Mineral King, Mt. Whitney and Mt. Brewer, Muir Pass and the Kaweah Basin—una gran Sierra Nevada—could features within two national parks possibly bear a more superlative and emphatic body of names? Looming above California's southern San Joaquin Valley and annually hosting more than 1,500,000 visitors, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks preserve precious natural and cultural resources, from groves of giant sequoia and historic CCC camps to grizzly bear ghosts and the utopian Kaweah Colony. Contested landscapes for more than 125 years, the spectacular sites in these twin parks are very much under siege, ever so capably documented in this book's historical photographs, clean maps, and fine prose."
—Paul F. Starrs, Professor of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, and author of Let the Cowboy Ride: Cattle Ranching in the American West and, with photographs by Peter Goin, Black Rock

"The policies, principles, and practices that have shaped America's national park system frequently emerged first in individual parks. In this welcome new addition of their previous exploration, Tweed and Dilsaver demonstrate the underappreciated and critical role that these southern Sierra Nevada parks and their surrounding landscapes played in the evolution of the nation's protected areas. Moreover, they do so with an engaging and thought-provoking style that will appeal to a wide range of readers."
—Terence Young, Professor of Geography, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and author of Heading Out: A History of American Camping and Building San Francisco's Parks, 1850–1930