America as second creation : technology and narratives of new beginnings /
David E. Nye.
- x, 371 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Originally published: 2003.
In the American beginning -- Preconditions -- 1. Narrating the assimilation of nature -- 2. Surveying the ground -- First narratives: the axe -- 3. Axe, clearing, cabin -- The nurturing forest -- Second narrative: the mill -- 5. The mill, or "natural power" -- Pollution and class conflict -- Third narrative: the canal and the railroad -- 7. "Let us conquer space" -- 8. "The route of superior desolation" -- Fourth narrative: irrigation -- 9. "Conquered rivers are better servants than wild clouds" -- 10. Water monopoly: Federal irrigation and factories in the field -- Metannarrative: synthesis and rebuttal -- 11. Progress, or entropy? -- Second creation, conservation, and wilderness.
0262640597 (pbk.) 9780262640596 (pbk.)
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Frontier and pioneer life--United States Frontier and pioneer life--Historiography.--United States Technology--Social aspects--History.--United States Technology--Social aspects--Historiography.--United States Land settlement--History--United States Land settlement--Historiography.--United States National characteristics, American
United States--Discovery and exploration United States--Colonization United States--Historical geography