I am struck by the way Cumings is constantly drawn to the concept of Arcadia. I suppose that it is a most appropriate way to describe the way people have viewed the country. It always seems convieniently depopulated and yet unmarred by human impact. Yet as soon as paradise is found it is lost. Cumings does a fine job of detangeling the way in which the settlement of the west was a monolithic process and instead parses it out into it's constitiuent parts. Different people settled different parts of the country and
It has only been through the imagery of the Hollywood Western that this ideal has been created. I greatly enjoy Cumings use of cultural references to illustrate his point. For him, themexpansion ofmthemcountry wasmmoremofma
cultural phenomena than anything else. I wish he had given a more thorough treatment of the war in the Phillipines but I do enjoy his way of framing regions and his discussion of how the environment has impacted settlement and material conditions.
Given that for much of American history, elites were educated in the Classics, I see the use of the image of Arcadia as the only logical analogy. The Ancient Greeks were fascinated by the people that historically lived in Arcadia because they had no agriculture, leaved in seemingly peaceful harmony with one another, and were connected to the land. I would say that if one read Native American instead of Arcadian in the description there would not be much difference.
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