Empire of Ruins - American Culture, Photography, and the Spectacle of Destruction (Hardcover)

Once symbols of the past, ruins have become ubiquitous signs of our future. Americans today encounter ruins in the media on a daily basis-images of abandoned factories and malls, toxic landscapes, devastating fires, hurricanes, and floods. In this sweeping study, Miles Orvell offers a new understanding of the spectacle of ruins in US culture, exploring how photographers, writers, painters, and filmmakers have responded to ruin and destruction, both real and imaginary, in an effort to make sense of the past and envision the future. Empire of Ruins explains why Americans in the nineteenth century yearned for the ruins of Rome and Egypt and how they portrayed a past as ancient and mysterious in the remains of Native American cultures. As the romance of ruins gave way to twentieth-century capitalism, older structures were demolished to make way for grander ones, a process interpreted by artists as a symptom of America's "creative destruction." In the late twentieth century, Americans began to inhabit a perpetual state of ruins, made visible by photographs of decaying inner cities, derelict factories and malls, and the waste lands of the mining industry. This interdisciplinary work focuses on how visual media have transformed disaster and decay into spectacles that compel our moral attention even as they balance horror and beauty. Looking to the future, Orvell considers the visual portrayal of climate ruins as we face the political and ethical responsibilities of our changing world. A wide-ranging work by an acclaimed urban, cultural, and photography scholar, Empire of Ruins offers a provocative and lavishly illustrated look at the American past, present, and future.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	March 2021
Authors:	Miles Orvell (Professor of English and American Studies)
Dimensions:	261 x 186 x 17mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	256
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-049160-4
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General Books > Humanities > History > American history > 1500 to 1800 Books > Humanities > History > American history > 1800 to 1900 Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Civil war Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns Books > History > American history > 1500 to 1800 Books > History > American history > 1800 to 1900 Books > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Promotions
LSN:	0-19-049160-4
Barcode:	9780190491604

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