Paradise Blues – The Scarred Face of God’s Own Country
If you read the landscape, you see right into the soul of the US
Christof Mauch lived in the US for 15 years and travelled the country extensively. His eye was continually drawn to breathtakingly beautiful swathes of land as well as to deep wounds inflicted on nature by humans over the past 200 years. And yet, the myth of this great, free, God-given, unspoiled land persists to this day as a cornerstone of the American identity.
In this intelligently observed and masterfully written book, Mauch recounts and analyses his trips to eight places – albeit very different iconographically –, which all represent some aspect of environmental plundering: Alaska, Malibu, Memphis, St. Thomas, Dodge City, Niagara, Disneyland and Portland.
- Nature writing, social portraiture and historiography by an esteemed expert
- A fresh new, eminently insightful look at the US
- Navid Kermani meets Jill Lepore and Harald Lesch
Christof Mauch, born in 1960, is the director of the largest institute for environmental humanities and social sciences in the world and Professor of American Cultural History and Transatlantic Studies in Munich. Mauch spent many years in the USA. He has been Director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, has held guest professorships on three different continents, and has received numerous international prizes for his work.
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