Back to Nature: The Arcadian Myth in Urban America Book

A thorough and engaging history, particularly in Schmitt's focus on how a variety of cultural forces both shaped and were shaped by projections of urban desires and attitudes on rural spaces. Also, the attention to how those urbanites went to great lengths to differentiate themselves and their "sophisticated" outdoor activities from those of actual country dwellers is fascinating. Where Back to Nature frustrates - not surprisingly, considering its publication date - is in referring to the working classes, the rural classes, women, and Native Americans always from a distance. Culture is described only through the actions of the wealthy and influential acting upon those "below" them, and the absence of those other voices becomes harder and harder to ignore as Schmitt gets deeper into that history. Also, a couple of chapters feel a bit cursory, especially the one about nature photography, in which the appeal and popularity of the medium is described but not how those technologies of reproduction and presentation impacted later attitudes toward their natural subjects. But those are the complaints of a contemporary reader asking an older book to write in a way perhaps inconceivable in its own moment.