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Rating: 
Summary: Essential Reading for the American Writer or Scholar
Review: Any serious scholar or especially a writer of the American place will find this book to be essential reading. From the Fallen Tree traces foundations of the American romantic tradition from its enlightenment roots up to the nascent romanticism of James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving, though it is clear that the argument Thomas Hallock traces extends in a clean line to this day. Along the way Hallock explicates the various ways in which narrative shapes and is shaped by events "on the ground." One of the more interesting aspects of Hallock's arguments is how aspects of privileged, aristocratic European traditions become conflated with republican ideals in order to create an American literature that can contain both imperial and democratic aspirations. Building and expanding on the work of earlier critics, Hallock's argument is accessible, cogent and convincing; furthermore, the breadth of Hallock's reading and scholarship is impressive. What is especially appealing is that the book moves forward in an almost linear fashion. Each section builds on the last, which gives the penultimate chapter on Cooper's Pioneers a feeling of roundness, of having completed the book's mission. When Hallock asserts that Cooper's Pioneers completes the translation of the Euro-American into the American place, the reader feels that the author has turned a corner. It is quite a compelling sensation. A literature major finishes the book feeling that he has gained a clearer sense of what is uniquely American (and what is not) about American literature; a history buff leaves with a better understanding of what shaped Teddy Roosevelt's environmentalism; a geography enthusiast leaves with a keener sense of reverence for the connection between cartography and letters, and how they shape culture; finally, any writer interested writing about America leaves with a sense of "this is where to begin."
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for the American Writer or Scholar
Review: Any serious scholar or especially a writer of the American place will find this book to be essential reading. From the Fallen Tree traces foundations of the American romantic tradition from its enlightenment roots up to the nascent romanticism of James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving, though it is clear that the argument Thomas Hallock traces extends in a clean line to this day. Along the way Hallock explicates the various ways in which narrative shapes and is shaped by events "on the ground." One of the more interesting aspects of Hallock's arguments is how aspects of privileged, aristocratic European traditions become conflated with republican ideals in order to create an American literature that can contain both imperial and democratic aspirations. Building and expanding on the work of earlier critics, Hallock's argument is accessible, cogent and convincing; furthermore, the breadth of Hallock's reading and scholarship is impressive. What is especially appealing is that the book moves forward in an almost linear fashion. Each section builds on the last, which gives the penultimate chapter on Cooper's Pioneers a feeling of roundness, of having completed the book's mission. When Hallock asserts that Cooper's Pioneers completes the translation of the Euro-American into the American place, the reader feels that the author has turned a corner. It is quite a compelling sensation. A literature major finishes the book feeling that he has gained a clearer sense of what is uniquely American (and what is not) about American literature; a history buff leaves with a better understanding of what shaped Teddy Roosevelt's environmentalism; a geography enthusiast leaves with a keener sense of reverence for the connection between cartography and letters, and how they shape culture; finally, any writer interested writing about America leaves with a sense of "this is where to begin."
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