Customer Reviews

Desert America: Territory of Paradox

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Paradox indeed. There is some arresting photography here and a nice look at the visual paradox such as development hard by desolation.

I found the text to be the typical elitist "looking down the nose" at an environment and society that the authors appear to think is inferior.

It's as if a group of "world citizens" with way too much education and way too little life experience set out to make a statement. The statement says much about the authors/editors and nothing interesting or fresh about the subject.

"In contemporary culture, the American desert stands as a monumental symbol of emptiness, as vast, seemingly infinite landscape that has traditionally served as a powerful embodiment of the 'natural,' the untouched and the sublime," says the introduction to the book. "But a journey through the space of the desert reveals that the experience of its immensity and silence is just a mirage."

With a rich combination of photography, essays and history, Desert America takes us on a fascinating journey through the "different, parallel strata of the occupation, appropriation, and transformation of the modern desert landscape," using seven interrelated themes:

- Promised Lands: native tribes, pioneers, suburbanites, immigrants
- The Elements: drought, dead seas, wind, solar and water power
- Eden: mirages, oases, ideal cities, leisure worlds
- Hostility: homeland security, nuclear test sites, rocket science, aircraft boneyards
- Other Worlds: space quest, biomes, UFOs, giant craters
- Expansion: alternative communities, instant cities, suburban grids
- Isolation: alone in the vast emptiness.

A most recommended read. You will never feel alone again driving for hours on those 'empty' desert roads.

Most residents of the southwest are well-aware that the desert is hardly 'deserted'. It is, in fact, being increasingly developed and at quite a rapid pace. The desert offers many the opportunity to start anew, providing a tabula rasa of sorts. Developers plan "ideal" cities from scratch, importing lifestyles and landscapes to a climate and topography that doesn't easily accept these foreign ideals. Large, water-thirsty lawns and golf-courses abound, recklessly demanding irrigation in drought-prone areas.

The perceived isolation of the desert provides cover for an array of typically illegal activities such as gambling and prostitution. These are the lifeblood of Las Vegas.

What isn't common knowledge however are the multitude of uses beyond recreation and habitation that the desert has accommodated. A large military presence pervades the region in the form of missile testing and combat training facilities. Underground nuclear missile launching stations, now relics of the Cold War, reside in the Arizona desert floor awaiting the curious gaze of tourists. The dry, arid climate of the Arizona desert provides an ideal resting place for retired commercial and military aircraft. Here, the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, often referred to as "The Boneyard", is believed to hold the highest concentration of aircraft in the world.

The book manages to plot out quite nicely, the full spectrum of uses and facilities in the American desert. The large panoramic photos are generally of excellent quality and are effective in demonstrating the matter at hand. The text is a bit thin for most of the sites but provides a good starting point for further research.

Beautifully designed. Great photography. Lots of typos though. Great travel-log description of tons of interesting, influential, and obscure places in the American desert, written from the perspective of an architectural anthropologist. The writing itself is very brief and concise, but insightful.