A Wild Idea

Edmondson has told his complicated story well. He writes clearly, shows a grasp of broad swaths of information and opinion, and capably explains how the various players evolved in their thinking. A Wild Idea merits the attention of everyone deeply interested in the Adirondack region.

~Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Brad Edmondson's thoroughly researched book details the difficult process behind the enactment of this law.

~Albany Times Union

Brad Edmondson, the author of A Wild Idea, published to coincide with the anniversary of Governor Nelson Rockefeller's signing of the APA bill on June 25, 1971, reminds us how broadly popular environmentalism was in the early 70s, unifying a nation still fractured along generational, cultural and political fault lines.

~The Lake George Mirror

A Wild Idea is essential reading for anyone interested in how human beings can coexist in reasonable harmony with our natural world.

~Adirondack Explorer

Much of the journalistic-style narrative reported in A Wild Idea is derived from Edmondson's more than five dozen interviews with people who, in one way or another, were first-hand participants in the APA's founding. While the author's sympathies are clearly aligned with the APA and its supporters, his text offers a fair, measured treatment of the arguments, reasoning, and passions of opponents.

~New York-Pennsylvania Collector

A Wild Idea is an important and timely intervention in Adirondack historiography as well as a helpful addition, particularly in its methodology, to the study of the American wilderness movement and the history of regional planning.

~New York History