David Stradling's Making Mountains is the definitive and indispensable Catskill Mountain history, the best thing written on the Catskills in 35 years. The book is thesis driven - showing how local rural residents and city visitors collaborate to create the kind of mountain environment that serves the interests of both, and that achieves the tangible realization of our culture's conception of"mountains" envisioned by artists and writers.The narrative is engrossing. Stradling combines a love of the Catskills and its people with academic rigor. This book is the real thing. If you are interested in the mountains, you need this book.