From reviews of the first edition: "This splendid, well-written, amply documented volume is remarkable in several respects, including the fact that, despite being the first extended treatment of its subject, it is likely to remain the definitive one." -- Professional Geographer "A fascinating look at the American obsession with historically violent and tragic places." -- Western Historical Quarterly "Attitudes, values, beliefs, and experiences all play a part in the national collective unconscious that leads some sites to be sanctified, others to be obliterated, and still others to be ignored. Foote provides a valuable perspective on this process in a well-written and thoroughly illustrated book that offers a provocative theoretical perspective on the imprinting of historical memory on the American landscape." -- Public Historian "[This] is an erudite history and description of how Americans have, or have not, interpreted/recognized the meaning of violent and tragic events throughout their history." -- Space and Culture

Shadowed Ground explores how and why Americans have memorialized-- or not-- the sites of tragic and violent events spanning three centuries of history and every region of the country. For this revised edition, Kenneth Foote has written a new concluding chapter that looks at the evolving responses to recent acts of violence and terror, including the destruction of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School massacre, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

With its dignified courthouse set among shade trees and lawns dotted with monuments to prominent citizens and fallen veterans, the courthouse square remains the civic center in a majority of the county seats of Texas. Yet the squares themselves vary in form and layout, reflecting the different town-planning traditions that settlers brought from Europe, Mexico, and the United States. In fact, one way to trace settlement patterns and ethnic dispersion in Texas is by mapping the different types of courthouse squares.

This book offers the first complete inventory of Texas courthouse squares, drawn from extensive archival research and site visits to 139 of the 254 county seats. Robert Veselka classifies every existing plan by type and origin, including patterns and variants not previously identified. He also explores the social and symbolic functions of these plans as he discusses the historical and modern uses of the squares. He draws interesting new conclusions about why the courthouse square remains the hub of commercial and civic activity in the smaller county seats, when it has lost its prominence in others.

Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories vividly illustrates that a nation's history is more complicated than the simple binary of remembered/forgotten. Some parts of history, while not formally recognized within a commemorative landscape, haunt those landscapes by virtue of their ephemeral or displaced presence. Rather than being discretely contained within a formal sites, these memories remain public by lingering along the edges and within the crevices of commemorative landscapes. By integrating theories of haunting, place, and public memory, this collection demonstrates that the National Mall, often referred to as "the nation's front yard," might better be understood as "the nation's attic" because it hides those issues we do not want to address but cannot dismiss. The neatly ordered installations and landscaping of the National Mall, if one looks and listens closely, reveal the messiness of US history. From the ephemeral memories of protests on the Mall to the displaced but persistent presences of inequality, each chapter in this book examines the ways in which contemporary public life in the US is haunted by incomplete efforts to close the book on the past.

The geography of culture has held a sustained attraction for some of the most distinguished and promising geographers of the twentieth century. These notable voices have now been brought together to explore the cultural landscape in this fresh, encompassing survey of one of geography's most vital research areas.

In Re-reading Cultural Geography, a worthy successor to the original and now classic Readings in Cultural Geography (1962), the editors have gathered articles, essays, and new commentaries, as well as extensive annotated reading lists and a comprehensive bibliography, into a book that will be ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses of all levels.

Assessing an intellectual world far different from the one defined in the earlier volume, Re-reading Cultural Geography uncovers the common themes of a vibrant, often clamorous discipline. Broadly defined, these include "how the world looks"--the patternings of cultural traits and material artifacts; "how the world works"--the dynamics of human organizations in interaction with the environment; and "what the world means"--the systems of shared values and beliefs that shape communities.

Whether you are just beginning as a major, taking classes toward a GIS certificate, working on an advanced degree, or considering a career change at a different point in your life, geography can lead to exceptional career opportunities. Practicing Geography: Careers for Enhancing Society and the Environment is a comprehensive new resource from the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and Pearson, designed to prepare students for careers in business, government, and non-profit organizations. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this project brings together members of the geography community to author different chapters that discuss workforce needs, expectations, and core competencies in professional geography, profiling the professional applications of and opportunities in geography today.