 "McPhee has the poet's knack for the telling point, the metaphor that incisively leads to greater understanding," Ruess wrote.He believed that McPhee underestimated humanity's ability to exert its control on natural settings, since the U.S. infrastructure effectively did this.Ruess concluded that "McPhee's reports from the battlefronts are not as valuable as their implicit message that the control of nature is not nearly as important as knowing one's place in it."