New Mexico's Pajarito Plateau encompasses the Bandelier National Monument and the atomic city of Los Alamos. On Rims and Ridges throws into stark relief what happens when native cultures and Euro-American commercial interests interact in such a remote area with limited resources. The demands of citizens and institutions have created a form of environmental gridlock more often associated with Manhattan Island than with the semiurban West, writes Hal K. Rothman.

A professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the author of Preserving Different Pasts: The American National Monuments, Hal K. Rothman has provided a new epilogue for this paperback edition.