Cover image for The national road : dispatches from a changing America
The national road : dispatches from a changing America
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The national road : dispatches from a changing America
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Physical Description:
263 pages ; 24 cm.
Genre:
Summary:
"The National Road is a collection of essays about American places, each dealing with contentious matters: religion, politics, sex, race, poverty, loss and the stubborn persistence of national pride, despite abundant reasons for cynicism. An important question lies at the heart of this collection: what does it mean to "belong" in America in the midst of an era when rootedness to a particular piece of ground means less than at any time during our history? These essays cover a wide range of subjects: the changing geography of pornography, the proliferation of "dollar stores," the unique pain of losing a house, the joy and futility of cross-country drives, the ways that certain town governments can turn vicious, the quest to stand upon the topographical roof of every state, a journey into the wilderness to find the body of a notorious killer, a unique examination of the most "American" major religion in the gloom past midnight, a personal eulogy for the metropolitan daily newspaper. From their particular angles, they all examine changing definitions of this shared soil. In a time of collective unease, the American land - this magnificent 3.7 million square miles -- is the lowest denominator of what we have in common"--
Contents:
Your land -- Mormon historical sites at night -- Drive -- Spillville -- The national road -- The whole hoop of the world -- Late city final -- Villages -- The valley -- Welcome to Dirtytown -- Searchlight -- King Philip's shadow -- Home ground -- At the end there will be strangers.
Publication Info:
Berkeley : Counterpoint Press, 2020.
Subject:
Roads -- United States
Migration, Internal -- United States.
Social change -- United States.
United States -- Economic conditions -- 21st century
United States -- Social conditions -- 21st century
United States -- Social life and customs -- 21st century.
Essays.
Internal migration
Mobility
Change, Social
Cultural change
Cultural transformation
Societal change
Socio-cultural change
SAILS ISBN:
9781640092907