The Making of America's Culture Regions by Richard L. Nostrand (review)

Abstract

rested in shady cottonwood stands, and in the slow fade of evenings I thumbed through the book, reading Moulton’s vivid narrative of the corps’ 1805 trip along the same stretch of river. Th ey struggled to drag pirogues against Missouri currents, they noted swallows’ nests built into cliff faces, they hunted and labored. Th ey also, however, felt the Breaks’ “visionary inchantment [sic]” just as we did (159). Moulton’s words deepened the Breaks’ sense of place through off ering remembrance of things past. With such temporal awareness came fuller satisfaction— and thus Moulton helped me hear the richness of the Sirens’ song.