|
|
|
Book Review
| See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880–1940. By Marguerite S. Shaffer. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. 429 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth $55.00, paper $18.95.
|
| In See America First, Marguerite Shaffer argues that tourism was central to the development of "a nascent national culture in the United States" (p. 6). From 1880 to 1940, the tourism industry promoted certain attractions as distinctly American and defined an "organic nationalism that linked national identity to a shared territory and history" (p. 4). Tourism, in other words, instilled the national landscape with symbolic meaning. By visiting prescribed places and seeing America, tourists could gain an intimate understanding of the nation and participate in a patriotic ritual. As a result, citizenship became defined in terms of geographic mobility and the consumption of the tourist experience. |
1
|
|
Shaffer's study unfolds in seven detailed chapters that cover familiar territory, from the transcontinental railroad and the national parks to the growth of automobile travel. She sheds new light on these topics by examining them through the lenses of nationalism, the modern nation-state, and consumer culture. The discussion of Louis Hill and the Great Northern Railroad's promotion of Glacier National Park, for example, illuminates these themes. Hill wanted to fashion Glacier as an American tourist attraction and used the "See America First" slogan to incorporate the park into a "national geography" (p. 61). His vision for Glacier was also a reaction to the anxieties created by the growth of the urban-industrial nation, and he pitched the park as a refuge from the ills of modern society, such as immigration and labor unrest. But tourism depended on the same urban-industrial infrastructure that visitors were trying to flee. And when elite Americans embraced the tourist experience, they also defined themselves as modern consumers—albeit virtuous, patriotic ones. In short, tourism sought to reconcile "a nostalgic ideal of America as 'nature's nation'" with the modern nation-state (pp. 309–310). |
2
|
|
Throughout much of her study, Shaffer pays close attention to how the natural environment contributed to the development of national tourism and national identity. For instance, in discussing the See America First guidebooks, which were launched in 1914, Shaffer argues that the series presented a paradoxical portrait. The guides cast nature as the antithesis of modern civilization, but they also celebrated nature's bounty and praised dams and other technological innovations as evidence of progress. According to Shaffer, these guidebooks illustrated that nature, whether in the form of sublime scenery or natural resources, "represented a defining characteristic of America's distinct identity as a nation" (p. 192). Tourism, in turn, helped to turn nature and culture into a "commodified landscape of scenic goods" (p. 272). |
3
|
|
Beautifully illustrated with numerous historic photos and advertising tracts, Shaffer's study is well-researched and clearly written. With its comprehensive national framework and examination of consumer culture, it makes an important contribution to the literature on tourism. The final chapter on "tourist mementos" could have benefited from further development, as it focuses on a few sources and does not fully get at the diversification of the tourist experience. Nonetheless, See America First is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on tourism history. |
4
|
|
Connie Y. Chiang is visiting assistant professor of history and environmental studies at Bowdoin College. She currently is preparing a book manuscript on the environmental and social history of tourism and fisheries in Monterey, California. |
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|