Bad Land
An American Romance
by Jonathan Raban
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Jonathan Raban, an Englishman, explores the harrowing reality behind the dream of the American West. Using the accounts of homesteaders, he evokes the realities of their disappointments, exploding our idea of the West as a realm of stable, settled communities and revealing a much less wholesome landscape peopled by loners and sociopaths. This book was nominated for the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction.
Editions of Bad Land
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Hardcover |
Publisher Thorndike Pr |
Date 1998 |
Price $1.00 |
 Used, Good |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Book |
Publisher Picador |
Date 1996 |
Price $4.46 |
Used - Very Good |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Paperback |
Publisher Vintage Books |
Date 1997 |
Price $1.00 |
Used - Good |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Hardcover |
Publisher Random House Inc |
Date 1996 |
Price $1.00 |
Very Good+ |
Publisher Notes
Seduced by the governments offer of 320 acres per homesteader, Americans and Europeans rushed to Montana and the Dakotas to fulfill their own American dream in the first decade of this century. Rabans stunning evocation of the harrowing, desperate reality behind the homesteader's dream strips away the myth--while preserving the romance--that has shrouded our understanding of our own heartland.
Media Reviews
"'Raban is searching and compassionate....And he is at all times eloquent. His writer's zeal is the zeal of a convert to America, but his vision of those who wished to win the West but mostly lost it is unimpaired and true."
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