{"product_id":"the-invention-of-the-american-desert-9780520306691","title":"The Invention of the American Desert","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong viewed as a tabula rasa, the deserts of the American West have played a distinct role in the projection of American cultural identities. Historically represented through fantasies of individualism, frontier ruggedness, and land acquisition, the desert is also the site of extreme social and environmental violence. The Invention of the American Desert brings together a wide-ranging group of interdisciplinary essays that explore, through diverse perspectives, dialectical problems posed by an environment that has served as a testing ground for modernist experimentation in art and architecture, military-industrial incursions, and ecological disasters throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In light of the urgent climate crisis and the planet's increasing desertification, this volume reflects on the nature and legacy of the desert as a crucible for competing visions of land, environment, and art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e Lyle Massey and James Nisbet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e PART ONE: CONTAMINATION\u003cbr\u003e 1. Desolate Dreams \u003cbr\u003e Joseph Masco\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2. Air, Wind, Breath, Life: Desertification and Will Wilson’s AIR (Auto-Immune Response)\u003cbr\u003e Jessica L. Horton\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e PART TWO: FABRICATION\u003cbr\u003e 3. Notes from Bioteknika \u003cbr\u003e Albert Narath\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 4. Troglodyte Modernists \u003cbr\u003e Lyle Massey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 5. Explosive Modernism: Hiram Hudson Benedict's Bouldereign and Zabriskie Point at Fifty\u003cbr\u003e Edward Dimendberg\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e PART THREE: INVISIBILITY\u003cbr\u003e 6. Point Omega \/ Omega Point: Desert in Three Parts \u003cbr\u003e Stefanie Sobelle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 7. The Desert in Fine Grain\u003cbr\u003e Emily Eliza Scott\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e PART FOUR: DYSTOPIA\u003cbr\u003e 8. The Desert as Black Mythology \u003cbr\u003e Bridget R. Cooks\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 9. On the Recalcitrance of the Desert Island, by way of Andrea Zittel's A–Z West\u003cbr\u003e James Nisbet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e CODA\u003cbr\u003e 10. Four Theses for the Coming Deserts \u003cbr\u003e Hans Baumann and Karen Pinkus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e List of Contributors\u003cbr\u003e List of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49402923057495,"sku":"9780520306691","price":50.4,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-invention-of-the-american-desert-9780520306691","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}