In the American Imagination, the Land and Its Original Inhabitants

Roughing it. (Jacket Cover Notes) One must wonder after reading Great Plains if the publishers, or the author himself, knows what it takes to present work of scholarship. It is hard to find the elements of thoroughness, accuracy and the qualities of critical analysis in Mr. Frazier's work, that one ordinarily expects to find in such a project based on history. Essentially, there is nothing new or informative. The work, quite frankly, is a rehash of old stereotypes, basic history to be found in any one of a thousand encyclopedias, and storytelling. The tribal content of the text, dealing with the American Indian, debunks the indigenous cultures across the board and, again, drags up the myth that the Indian is subhuman (outside of the noble Crazy Horse, that is). Great Plains is a disservice, not only to Indian communities, but to the public atlarge which is quite often uninformed and unsuspecting. It is the publisher's responsibility to market popular press that relates to the reader something more than half truths, especially when dealing with the historical text. Apparently, Farrar/Straus/Giroux is in the business of marketing consumptive history, equal to that of the once popular captive narratives of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The literary prizes that this work has received do even less to reassure responsible scholars and writers that history is a serious matter. . Frazier might want to consult the works ack Kerouac, and if e has already done [Speech]

Aesthetics · Art · Geography · American Literature and Culture · History