Earning the Rockies

Description:

"As a boy, Robert Kaplan listened to his truck-driver father tell evocative stories about traveling across America in his youth, travels in which he learned to understand the country literally from the ground up. In Earning the Rockies, Kaplan undertakes his own cross-country journey to recapture an appreciation of American geography often lost in the jet age. Along the way, he witnesses both prosperity and decline--increasingly cosmopolitan cities that thrive on globalization, impoverished towns denuded by the loss of manufacturing--and paints a bracingly clear picture of America today. Kaplan lays bare the roots of American greatness--the fact that we are a nation, empire, and continent all at once--and how westward expansion shaped our national character, and should shape our foreign policy"--Provided by publisher.

subjects: Description and travel,  Travel,  Philosophy,  Imperialism,  City and town life,  American National characteristics,  Territorial expansion,  Social conditions,  Geography,  Landscapes,  Foreign relations,  History,  New York Times reviewed,  National characteristics, american,  United states, description and travel,  United states, social conditions, 1980-,  United states, historical geography,  United states, territorial expansion,  United states, foreign relations,  Diplomatic relations,  Social aspects,  HISTORY / United States,  POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics,  TRAVEL / United States,  Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer

People: Robert D. Kaplan (1952-)

Places: United States

Times: 1980-