As it says in the title, a history of Rock Creek Park, the 2000+ acre urban park in the middle of DC, from the founding of the city to the current day.
Good things: There are lots of great photographs. The author does a great job of keeping everything within the greater context and not letting the reader forget that most of the activities and events held in the park until the mid-60s were for white people only. I particularly liked the details about Reconstruction-era Rock Creek Park, which was the home of a large Black community who had come from the South to be part of the Union army but then had nowhere else to go when the war was over.
Negatives: The book really, REALLY needed maps. I've lived here my whole life but I still needed to check the NPS website every few pages. I had also hoped there would be information about the plants and animals and geology of the park, but there wasn't really. It's a very human-centered history. There's also only three pages discussing Native Americans, based only on a small amount of archeological research and not anything written by actual Native Americans.

It's very local-interest and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not familiar with the area. If you do live in the area it's a nice reference book. ( )