Description
Book SynopsisGeorge Catlin gained renown for his nineteenth-century paintings of Indians and their lands. The author argues that, despite his sympathies, Catlin's work embodied the same prevailing sentiment toward Nature that sanctioned Indian removal and thus undercut his own alternate vision for westward expansion.
Trade ReviewA clear, coherent, provocative reconsideration of Catlin that challenges readers to reexamine their perceptions of the artist; to explore their understanding of nineteenth-century American attitudes toward expansion, Indians, and nature; and to contemplate how underlying intellectual attitudes and epistemologies may shape and constrain social criticism, including our own. George Miles, coeditor of Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America's Western Past ""Hausdoerffer's innovative and richly suggestive book leaves no question or controversy surrounding Catlin unexplored. His compelling answers to those questions alone make this rewarding reading for scholars working in environmental studies, environmental ethics, American studies, and ecocriticism."" Joni Adamson, author of American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice and Ecocriticism
