O. Alan Weltzien is a professor of English at the University of Montana–Western. He has published many books, including a memoir and two books of poetry, and is the editor of The Norman Maclean Reader.

“Part environmental humanities treatise and part memoir, Weltzien’s study illuminates the cultural meaning of mountain wilderness.”-Scott Slovic, coeditor of Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture“Open[s] up new approaches to mountain literature, where historical, environmental, commercial, and literary viewpoints make clearer why and how we have sanctified these high-altitude monuments. You won’t hike or look at these mountains again in the same way after reading this remarkable book.”-Bill Lang, author of Confederacy of Ambition: William Winlock Miller and the Making of Washington Territory “To live under the volcano with Weltzien is to hike, sometimes anxiously, through fields of sociology, tourism, urban planning, and ecology-then to pause to contemplate lava domes, landscape painting, and indoor climbing walls. A book to engage both climbers and watchers.”-Laurie Ricou, author of The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Legacy of Exceptionalism 2. Standard Routes, Standard Highways 3. Cities and Their Volcanoes 4. Green Consumerism and the Volcanoes 5. Wilderness and Volcanoes 6. Volcanoes and Crowds Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

O. Alan Weltzien is a professor of English at the University of Montana–Western. He has published many books, including a memoir and two books of poetry, and is the editor of The Norman Maclean Reader.

“Part environmental humanities treatise and part memoir, Weltzien’s study illuminates the cultural meaning of mountain wilderness.”-Scott Slovic, coeditor of Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture“Open[s] up new approaches to mountain literature, where historical, environmental, commercial, and literary viewpoints make clearer why and how we have sanctified these high-altitude monuments. You won’t hike or look at these mountains again in the same way after reading this remarkable book.”-Bill Lang, author of Confederacy of Ambition: William Winlock Miller and the Making of Washington Territory “To live under the volcano with Weltzien is to hike, sometimes anxiously, through fields of sociology, tourism, urban planning, and ecology-then to pause to contemplate lava domes, landscape painting, and indoor climbing walls. A book to engage both climbers and watchers.”-Laurie Ricou, author of The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Legacy of Exceptionalism 2. Standard Routes, Standard Highways 3. Cities and Their Volcanoes 4. Green Consumerism and the Volcanoes 5. Wilderness and Volcanoes 6. Volcanoes and Crowds Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index