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Inventing Niagara - Beauty, Power, and Lies (Paperback)
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Inventing Niagara - Beauty, Power, and Lies (Paperback)
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List price R600
Loot Price R500
Discovery Miles 5 000
You Save R100 (17%)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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Americans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't
very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water
diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape
redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to
nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they
are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films
and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny,
they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power,
they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty,
they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from
below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America
falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force
while claiming to submit to its will.
Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, "Inventing
Niagara" traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering
marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the
hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested
the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who
secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who
unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who
bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on
the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks
of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at
Niagara.
From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn,
Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the
mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis,
"Inventing Niagara" shows us how understanding the cultural history
of nature might help us rethink our place in it today.
General
Imprint: |
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
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Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 2009 |
First published: |
May 2009 |
Authors: |
Ginger Strand
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Dimensions: |
214 x 140 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
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Pages: |
352 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-4165-4657-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Earth & environment >
Geography >
Historical geography
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LSN: |
1-4165-4657-X |
Barcode: |
9781416546573 |
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