{"product_id":"sight-unseen-9781496205599","title":"Sight Unseen","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn C. Frémont was the most celebrated explorer of his era. After Congress published Frémont's official report of his 1842 expedition, few doubted the nation should expand to the Pacific. The first in-depth study of this remarkable report, Sight Unseen argues that Frémont used both a radical form of art and an imaginary map to create an aesthetic desire for expansion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Anyone interested in how Americans transformed western lands from obstacles into symbols of national achievement will find much of value in Menard's work.\"—Jared Orsi, \u003ci\u003eKansas History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] sharp and canny synthesis. . . . Most impressive in \u003ci\u003eSight Unseen\u003c\/i\u003e is the meticulous way Menard makes his case that [Frémont’s] imaginative transformation was a textual one.”—Robert Thacker, \u003ci\u003eWestern American Literature \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Through the imaginative eyes of Frémont, Menard makes significant strides in linking the words of the explorer and naturalist to the cultural concept that would shape the future land use and settlement of the American West.\"—Camden Burd, \u003ci\u003eHistorical Geography\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Crisply written, deliciously illustrated.\"—Ryan Boyd, \u003ci\u003eGreat Plains Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eSight Unseen\u003c\/i\u003e is a rigorously researched, exceptionally astute, and well-reasoned interdisciplinary study of a report that defined America's emerging ideology of progress. It is a splendid contribution to the historiography of both Frémont and nineteenth-Century America.\"Fred MacVaugh, \u003ci\u003eNebraska History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eSight Unseen\u003c\/i\u003e is] a well-written work revealing an essential part of the history of the North American continent.\"—G.J. Martin, \u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eSight Unseen\u003c\/i\u003e is a book for anyone who loves maps, landscape, and historical intricacy. . . . Anchored by the image of the explorer waving his nation’s flag from a mountain peak, Menard’s account of Frémont’s expedition enlivens the rhetoric of a triumphal national narrative. Like the explorer’s Report, \u003ci\u003eSight Unseen\u003c\/i\u003e melds scientific, symbolic, and aesthetic views of a nation that knew no bounds.”—Lucy R. Lippard, author of \u003ci\u003eDown Country, \u003c\/i\u003ewinner of the Caroline Bancroft History Prize \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Eloquent, lively, and learned, with an intellectual breadth as wide as a Rocky Mountains horizon, Andrew Menard’s \u003ci\u003eSight Unseen\u003c\/i\u003e ably reconnoiters geographies of both imagination and terra firma. This fascinating book recovers the American West as John Frémont found it and shows us how the explorer taught us to see American landscapes—and America itself—anew.”—Tom Chaffin, author of \u003ci\u003ePathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Introduction: The Golden Meane\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart 1. Picturesque America\u003cbr\u003e The Great Desert\u003cbr\u003e The Hudson Valley\u003cbr\u003e Eastern Kansas\u003cbr\u003e Courthouse Rock\u003cbr\u003e Yellowstone\u003cbr\u003e All the Different Parts of Our Country\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart 2. Westward the Course of Empire\u003cbr\u003e The Mouth of the Oregon\u003cbr\u003e Westward the Course of Empire\u003cbr\u003e The Loftiest Peak of the Rocky Mountains\u003cbr\u003e        The Barometric Reading\u003cbr\u003e        The National Flag\u003cbr\u003e        \u003ci\u003eBromus\u003c\/i\u003e, the Humble Bee\u003cbr\u003e        The Four Cardinal Rivers\u003cbr\u003e To the Pacific and Beyond\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfterword: The Eye That Has Not Seen\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409219658071,"sku":"9781496205599","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781496205599.jpg?v=1730506008","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/sight-unseen-9781496205599","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}