Hunger for the Wild

"This book is a fascinating look at the landscape and our perceptions. It is also an examination of how both have changed and evolved, and that they continue to do so."—Denver Westerners

"The breadth and depth of Johnson’s sources and topics are remarkable. This is a valuable synthesis of the most recent scholarship about nature and the Western environment, but it is ultimately far more than that. Johnson analyzes Western paintings, photographs, artists, writers, movies, literature, rodeos, dude ranches, dams, bombs, and cowgirls. Western personalities such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Buffalo Bill Cody do not escape his gaze and neither do ‘poisoned places’ and urban spaces. . . . This is a landmark study that deserves a wide audience, especially among students of American studies, the environment, and the West."—The Historian

"A dizzying fizz of cultural analysis, intoxicating and effervescent . . . . Johnson’s book buzzes with intriguing turns of phrase and trenchant insights. It introduces a number of fascinating new artistic portrayals of the West and reintroduces many classic statements. . . . "—Great Plains Quarterly

"Examining a diverse cast of regional actors, from Native Americans and Spanish colonizers to gay cowboys and Hollywood moguls, Johnson follows five hundred years of evolving attitudes about the West and its ruggedness. . . . Scholars interested in the complex legacy surrounding the national obsession with the untamed West will find much to appreciate here."—Western Historical Quarterly

"A gifted storyteller, Johnson describes Americans’ambivalent attitudes toward the West—and the way these have changed over time—in language that is clear, precise, and often playful."—Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment

"This book is engaging, informative, masterfully researched, and artistically crafted. It promises to be important to a broad audience of scholars, artists, and anyone interested in how culture is constructed in relationship to place as well as how a place can be re-envisioned to suit the needs of the culture."—Western American Literature

"Builds on a critical engagement with the central works of western history and culture to arrive at an approach to the western past that is both thought-provoking and persuasive. The sweep of the volume itself is breathtaking."—South Dakota History

"A clever tour de force—full of anecdotes, vignettes, literary observations, and art interpretations that challenge our knowledge as well as our imagination. . . . Johnson’s study will take its place among the thoughtful and sophisticated works on the American West. Its originality inspires new ways of thinking about the region."—American Historical Review

"Utilizing a vast array of art, literature, intellectual writings, public entertainments, movies, and other cultural mediums, Johnson explores the diverse viewpoints and inconsistencies over the past 300 years. This exercise in intellectual and cultural history on a grand scale goes beyond earlier works by Roderick Nash, Hans Huth, R.W.B. Lewis, and Arthur Ekirch, Jr., to bring the story up to date. . . . [A] wide-ranging and sophisticated book."—Choice

"Brimming with wordplay, personal anecdotes, and telling vignettes, this comprehensive book serves up a cornucopia of Western personalities, phenomena, and events."—Tucson Citizen

"A tour de force that draws upon and synthesizes the works of major historians, scientists, writers, and artists to interpret just what is meant by a ‘Wild West’ and what that concept means to ranchers and rural communities, American Indians, land developers, and postmodern urban telecommuters. The wide-ranging essays include discussions of early Spanish explorations, the controlling of wild places and managing of wild animals, McWildernesses, urban sprawl, gay rodeos, modern Native American identity and New Age spiritualists, Roswell alien sightings, and how the Wild West is represented in films and nature writings."—Library Journal

“Move over Henry Nash Smith, Roderick Nash, and Richard Slotkin. This stunning volume immediately vaults Michael Johnson to the forefront of authorities on the Wilderness West. A brilliant and profound study.”—Richard W. Etulain, author of Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West

“Provides us all with a new and insightful way of looking forward that places him in the rarified company of Frederick Jackson Turner, Henry Nash Smith, and Patricia Nelson Limerick in providing a fresh western synthesis.”—Paul A. Hutton, author of Phil Sheridan and His Army

“An astonishing book—an epic, often jaw-dropping survey of our centuries-long love affair with the untamed West.” —Michael Steiner, coeditor of Many Wests: Place, Culture, and Regional Identity