Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Record 25 of 100
Previous Record Next Record
Book Cover
Bestseller
BestsellerE-Book
Author Francaviglia, Richard V.

Title Go east, young man : imagining the American West as the Orient / Richard V. Francaviglia.

Publication Info. Logan : Utah State University Press, 2011.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 All Libraries - Shared Downloadable Materials  JSTOR Open Access Ebook    Downloadable
All patrons click here to access this title from JSTOR
 University of Saint Joseph: Pope Pius XII Library - Internet  WORLD WIDE WEB E-BOOK JSTOR    Downloadable
Please click here to access this JSTOR resource
Description 1 online resource (x, 350 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-342) and index.
Contents Introduction : the malleable landscape -- The frontier West as the Orient (circa 1810/1920) -- The American Zahara : into and beyond the Great Western Plains -- In praise of pyramids : orientalizing the western interior -- Chosen people, chosen land : Utah as the Holy Land -- Finding new Eden : the American Southwest -- The Far East in the Far West : Chinese and Japanese California -- Syria on the Pacific : California as the Near/Middle East -- To ancient East by ocean united : the Pacific Northwest as Asia -- The modern West as the Orient (circa 1920-2010) -- Lands of enchantment : the modern West as the Near/Middle East -- Another place and another time : the modern West as the Far East/Asia -- Conclusion full circle : imagining the Orient as the American West.
Summary "Transference of orientalist images and identities to the American landscape and its inhabitants, especially in the West-in other words, portrayal of the West as the 'Orient'--has been a common aspect of American cultural history. Place names, such as the Jordan River or Pyramid Lake, offer notable examples, but the imagery and its varied meanings are more widespread and significant. Understanding that range and significance, especially to the western part of the continent, means coming to terms with the complicated, nuanced ideas of the Orient and of the North American continent that European Americans brought to the West. Such complexity is what historical geographer Richard Francaviglia unravels in this book. Since the publication of Edward Said's book, Orientalism, the term has come to signify something one-dimensionally negative. In essence, the orientalist vision was an ethnocentric characterization of the peoples of Asia (and Africa and the 'Near East') as exotic, primitive 'others' subject to conquest by the nations of Europe. That now well-established point, which expresses a postcolonial perspective, is critical, but Francaviglia suggest that it overlooks much variation and complexity in the views of historical actors and writers, many of whom thought of western places in terms of an idealized and romanticized Orient. It likewise neglects positive images and interpretations to focus on those of a decadent and ostensibly inferior East. We cannot understand well or fully what the pervasive orientalism found in western cultural history meant, says Francaviglia, if we focus only on its role as an intellectual engine for European imperialism. It did play that role as well in the American West. One only need think about characterizations of American Indians as Bedouins of the Plains destined for displacement by a settled frontier. Other roles for orientalism, though, from romantic to commercial ones, were also widely in play. In Go East, Young Man, Francaviglia explores a broad range of orientalist images deployed in the context of European settlement of the American West, and he unfolds their multiple significances"--Provided by publisher.
Note Print version record.
Subject West (U.S.) -- Civilization.
Orientalism -- West (U.S.) -- History.
United States -- Civilization -- Asian influences.
Asia -- Foreign public opinion, American.
United States -- Territorial expansion.
East and West.
History.
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
HISTORY -- Historical Geography.
Civilization. (OCoLC)fst00862898
Civilization -- Asian influences. (OCoLC)fst01352334
East and West. (OCoLC)fst00901090
Orientalism. (OCoLC)fst01048139
Public opinion, American. (OCoLC)fst01354087
Territorial expansion. (OCoLC)fst01355135
Asia. (OCoLC)fst01240495
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
United States, West. (OCoLC)fst01243255
HISTORY -- Historical Geography.
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX).
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY).
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Other Form: Print version: Francaviglia, Richard V. Go east, young man. Logan : Utah State University Press, 2011 9780874218091 (DLC) 2011018997 (OCoLC)726620667
Standard No. 9786613341457
ISBN 9780874218114 (electronic bk.)
087421811X (electronic bk.)
9780874218091 (cloth ;) (alk. paper)
0874218098 (cloth ;) (alk. paper)
9780874218107 (paperback;) (alk. paper)
0874218101 (paperback;) (alk. paper)
-->
Add a Review