Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A beautiful, absorbing, tragic book. . . . Rebecca Solnit tells this story with the passion and clarity it deserves." -- Larry McMurtry

"Savage Dreams is about many things: despoliation and restoration, finding a voice between contemporary noise and silence, making friends and enemies. Most of all, though, it may be about a journey into history: about how understanding history and making it are not really very different." -- Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick Traces

"Savage Dreams summons us to the campfires of resistance." -- Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

"Solnit's intelligent meditations may awaken us from our self- congratulatory coma. [Her] mind is fertile, wide-ranging and capable of integrating the bewildering deluge of fact, political delusion, flights of genius, inconceivable danger and cunning deceit that [have] characterized the nuclear age." -- Los Angeles Times

Product Description

If America has an Eden, it is Yosemite National Park, where millions of people crowd together every year to view virgin wilderness. If America has an Armageddon, it is the arid expanse of the Nevada Test Site, where the United States government has been rehearsing the end of the world since the 1950seven though the land still legally belongs to the Shoshone Indians. As examined by Rebecca Solnit in this lyrical and brilliantly idiosyncratic book, these two places are war zones, and what is at stake is not only Western real estate but the American soul.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520220668
• ISBN-13: 978-0520220669
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #386,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #31 in	Books > Travel > United States > States > California > Yosemite
  #68 in	Books > History > United States > State & Local > Nevada

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No romanticism here, February 5, 2000

By	[e-mail] (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

Solnit's juxtaposition of the insidious nuclear poisoning of Nevada to the making of Yosemite National Park (that she shows has been "loved to death" since it was first discovered by whites more than 150 years ago)makes this book a must for all environmentalists. Solnit deals directly with themes of conquest and redemption in historic efforts to both tame and use these lands. Readers gain specific understanding about two places that are, after all, national icons. However, the deeper themes so well-developed in this book are being played out no less dramtically all across the country.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Reviews Are Not About The Book, March 1, 2007

By	Larry Darnell - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wow, take a moment to read the other reviews of this book.

I picked this book up off a bargain table, and months later happened to take it with me when I was visiting Yosemite without knowing 1/2 the book was about Yosemite. That was kind of a thrill.

Solnit's historical and writing skills, her ability to build a world stage of activity and its interconnectedness with her narrative are extraordinary.

As a landscape artist and photographer, I find this book to be a great resource. Understanding the history of Yosemite is frankly consciousness shifting.

As the other reviewer says, nuclear weapons are our oyster.

Indians, big bangs, Central Park, Fremont and the Heart of Darkness. How about that.

5.0 out of 5 stars A thrilling excursion into the heart of the West, May 18, 2004

By	Stephen J. Zeoli (Hubbardton, VT USA) - See all my reviews

If you have an open and inquisitive mind, no matter what your political outlook, you will enjoy this exploration of western America and our relationship with this unique landscape. Solnit weaves discussions about the settlement of the west by Euro-Americans, native American rights, nuclear testing, and other critical issues, with ruminations about H.D. Thoreau, John Muir, country music, landscape painters, and other intriguing topics. This is an excellent book about an important subject that will delight you if you let it.