{"product_id":"9781607323983","title":"Epiphany in the Wilderness: Hunting, Nature, and Performance in the Nineteenth-Century American West","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhether fulfilling subsistence needs or featured in stories of grand adventure, hunting loomed large in the material and the imagined landscape of the nineteenth-century West. \u003ci\u003eEpiphany in the Wilderness\u003c\/i\u003e explores the social, political, economic, and environmental dynamics of hunting on the frontier in three “acts,” using performance as a trail guide and focusing on the production of a “cultural ecology of the chase” in literature, art, photography, and taxidermy.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUsing the metaphor of the theater, Jones argues that the West was a crucial stage that framed the performance of the American character as an independent, resourceful, resilient, and rugged individual. The leading actor was the all-conquering masculine hunter hero, the sharpshooting man of the wilderness who tamed and claimed the West with each provident step. Women were also a significant part of the story, treading the game trails as plucky adventurers and resilient homesteaders and acting out their exploits in autobiographical accounts and stage shows.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eEpiphany in the Wilderness\u003c\/i\u003e informs various academic debates surrounding the frontier period, including the construction of nature as a site of personal challenge, gun culture, gender adaptations and the crafting of the masculine wilderness hero figure, wildlife management and consumption, memorializing and trophy-taking, and the juxtaposition of a closing frontier with an emerging conservation movement.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe University Press of Colorado gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University toward the publication of this book.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Colorado","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47151337177328,"sku":"9781607323983","price":44.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781607323983_p0.jpg?v=1763829922","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781607323983","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}