Nature Shock: Getting Lost in AmericaAn award†‘winning environmental historian explores American history through wrenching, tragic, and sometimes humorous stories of getting lost The human species has a propensity for getting lost. The American people, inhabiting a mental landscape shaped by their attempts to plant roots and to break free, are no exception. In this engaging book, environmental historian Jon Coleman bypasses the trailblazers so often described in American history to follow instead the strays and drifters who went missing. From Hernando de Soto’s failed quest for riches in the American southeast to the recent trend of getting lost as a therapeutic escape from modernity, this book details a unique history of location and movement as well as the confrontations that occur when our physical and mental conceptions of space become disjointed. Whether we get lost in the woods, the plains, or the digital grid, Coleman argues that getting lost allows us to see wilderness anew and connect with generations across five centuries to discover a surprising and edgy American identity. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 13 | |
2 Helpful Woods and Violent Waters | 52 |
3 Children of the Revolution | 93 |
4 Homing | 134 |
5 DeadCertain Mental Compass | 171 |
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agrarian Algonquians American animals Apalachee bewildered Billington California camp captives chiefdoms Christians colonial colonists communities County cultural dark Dismal Swamp edge Edward Abbey Elvas England English enslaved Everts expedition father Fendler Florida forest Frémont frontier geographic getting lost guides Hernando de Soto hike hikers History horses households human hunters hunting Huntington Library Ibid Indians individual space interior Iowa Iroquois John John Billington knew labor land landmarks landscapes Loguen Lost Person maize male maps Mary Rowlandson mental mico missing Mississippian Montana Tractors Mountain moved National Park Native Native Americans nature shock navigate neighbors night North Ortiz outdoor path Perico prairies region relational space relationships River Rowlandson runaways Search and Rescue slave slavery social Soto Soto’s spatial stay story surveillance swamp territories Thoreau tion tourists town track trail traveled University Press volunteers wandered Whittlesey wilderness William women woods wrote York