From the High Sierra to the Adirondacks and the Everglades, Dan White travels the nation to experience firsthand - and sometimes face-first - how the American wilderness transformed from the devil's playground into a source of adventure, relaxation, and renewal.
Whether he's camping nude in cougar country, being attacked by wildlife while "glamping", or crashing a girls-only adventure for urban teens, White seeks to animate the evolution of outdoor recreation. In the process he demonstrates how the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, Roosevelt, and Muir - along with visionaries such as Adirondack Murray, Horace Kephart, and Juliette Gordon Low - helped blaze a trail from transcendentalism to "leave no trace".
Wide ranging in research, enthusiasm, and geography, Under the Stars reveals a vast population of nature seekers, a country still in love with its wild places.