| Book Review | Environmental History, 11.3

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| Book Review | Environmental History, 11.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Sequoia: The Heralded Tree in American Art and Culture. By Lori Vermaas. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2003. xvi + 271 pp. Illustrations, photographs, map, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.

For much of the nineteenth century, insecure Americans struggled to define the dis- tinguishing cultural traits of their republic. Not surprisingly, many citizens looked to Europe for tradition, but efforts to emulate European society often led to frustration. In the Enlightenment gauge of success, American achievement in the arts, sciences, and literature paled before that of the Old World. Europeans, for their part, continued to remind their New World cousins that America, ever rough and boorish, lacked the credentials of proper society. Even the designation "New World" became something of an epithet—a label that suggested a lack of history and accomplishment. Yet as the century wore on, intensely nationalistic Americans would link their identity to the bounty of the natural world that surrounded them. The vastness of nature provided Americans with a cultural past and as part of the larger promotion of national growth, boosters celebrated their heritage by claiming scenic superiority. In the physical world, nature's aesthetic features—ruggedness, openness, rawness—once considered signs of American immaturity, became evidence of American virtue.

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