nonfiction. Presents a history of influential people who have defined our camping experiences as we know them (an early chapter is devoted to Thoreau, but the author acknowledges that you need to be young and impressionable in order to submit to his writing). For someone who has done quite a bit of camping, and for someone that worries a lot about lots of things, the author sure does make a lot of really dumb mistakes--but I guess we all have our camping styles. ( )

The book was well researched and written in an engaging style. But for such a long and detailed work, I thought a number of angles on -- perhaps decades of-- modern-day camping were overlooked. For example, the back-to-the-land movement was essentially camping on steroids. White is speaking to the motorhome crowd, it seems. Granted I lost patience and didn't continue reading as closely as necessary to fully absorb his message, but my sense was that the author jumped from roughing it to motor homes. He could've also included the vast army of homeless people in the US who are camping out of necessity. ( )

I was super excited to win Under the Stars for an early review because I have always liked camping, but have not been able to go camping in several years. It took me some time to work through initially, not because I was savoring it, but because he spent the first two thirds of the book on the history of camping prior to the 1900s. There were definitely interesting bits to the very early history of camping, however I felt like a lot of time was spent covering the personalities and character of the individuals who started recreational camping down its path. Perhaps this was necessary to fully understand why they camped. The last third of the book, filled with tales of White's own camping experiences was a much faster read for me. Those chapters took me back to my childhood and the days of camping with my parents. I am glad that I stuck with the book and finished it, as I truly enjoyed the second half of it. As others have mentioned, there is a lot of psychoanalysis on the part of the author, and an agenda with environmentalism. ( )

A look at the surprisingly complicated history of recreational camping in the United States.

Before learning about this book I had never really given this idea of camping much thought, it was just a thing that everyone I knew did to one degree or another, at least a few times. I had no idea how much work it took to make recreational camping a reality. Learning about the development of the gear that campers used, about what it took to develop the very idea of camping was actually rather eye opening as well as the realization of how much the development of the camping culture has impacted so many areas in our country that you wouldn’t think had anything to do with camping initially.

Reading this book was an interesting experience. On one hand, the chapters dealing with the history of recreational camping and the interesting and often eccentric characters that led to it's creation and popularity are very well researched and very well written. I learned a lot from reading this book, even about people and topics I thought I already knew.
And then there are the chapters where the author recounts his own experiences with camping and the many...interesting choices he makes along the way. I have to applaud the author's willingness to share his experiences and the thinking behind his actions, both positive and negative and his love of camping, even the not so fun parts, comes through strongly. ( )

Dan White is the only outdoor writer I am aware of who seeks counsel on the couch of his therapist before he takes on a project in the Great Outdoors. So reader beware - a bit of phychoanalysis (of himself as well as many others) inevitably sneaks into his otherwise fun and informatinve book, Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping. And recognizing that Mr. White sees things from a left wing, so-called "progressive" viewpoint, the reader can also be prepared for the drudgery of slogging through the obligatory preaching on such orthodox articles of faith of the liberal mindset as environmentalism, gender issues, racial inequality (Mr. White does not call for camping to be a constitutional right requiring camping spot quotas based on skin color - at least not yet), class privilege, aberrant sexual behavior (Lord Baden-Powell pops up on occasion and Muir is handled rather delicately) and the like. There were times when I wanted to whisper in Mr. White's ear, "Read Patrick McManus and chill out!"

The history of how camping got to where it is today in the psyche of a nation is fascinating and introduces a number of memorable characters not generally well known. The facual history of the movement - if camping can be called a movement - is interesting and informative. And here Mr. White hits his stride. The historical story telling is focused and interesting. His own experiences with various aspects of camping are instructive and entertaining and well presented. His prose at times rises to the caliber of true literature. And under all of that overlay of psychology and progressive orthodoxy, there beats a heart that truly loves the outdoors, in all of its manifestations, rain or shine, hot or cold, cake walk or challenging. For that the book is well worth reading. Henry David Thoreau, who is billed as the inspiration for much of Mr. White's adventuring (a tattered copy of Walden apprently accompanies him on all his sojourns) can be inspiring and his writing electric, but his musings, especially while writing about his journey on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, can become stifling and boring. Mr. White flirts with the same quagmire, but manages to compensate with such soaring passages as can be found in his epilogue and at other points in his book, thus earning absolution from the attentive reader for his shortcomings. ( )