Preface I ix Abbreviations I xiii 1. Unearthing Herstory An Introduction I 3 2. Surveying the Virgin Land The Documents of Exploration and Colonization, 1500-1740 I 10 3. Laying Waste Her Fields of Plenty The Eighteenth Century I 26 The Visionary Line: The Poetry of Philip Freneau I 29 The Dubious Pleasures of an American Fanner: Crevecoeur’s Letters and Sketches I 52 Transitions I 67 4. Singing Her Past and Singing Her Praises The Nineteenth Century I 71 The Country as It Oughtta’ Be: John James Audubon I 74 Natty Bumppo as The American Dream: The Leatherstocking Novels of James Fenimore Cooper I 89 Every Mother’s Son: The Revolutionary War Romances of William Gilmore Simms I 115 The Closed Frontier I 132 5. Making It with Paradise The Twentieth Century I 138 Some Thoughts for Our Bicentennial I 138 A Meditation on Metaphor I 148 Notes I 161 Bibliography I 175 Index I 181