The Estrangement of the American Landscape

American attitudes towards the land were shaped by the great rectangular survey that carved the western United States into a uniform rectilinear grid, as precise as mathematical graphing paper. Initiated by Thomas Jefferson in 1784, the survey recast North America into a land estranged from its peop...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial research Vol. 85; no. 2; pp. 323 - 350
Main Author Alexander, Amir
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Johns Hopkins University Press 01.06.2018
Subjects
Activism
American history
Archives & records
Attitudes
Birds
Bundy, Ammon
Exploitation
Farmers
Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)
Libraries
Madison, James (1751-1836)
Mathematics
Polls & surveys
Public life
Sieges
Society
Wildlife sanctuaries
Oregon
Chicago Illinois
United States > US
North America
Virginia
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Summary:American attitudes towards the land were shaped by the great rectangular survey that carved the western United States into a uniform rectilinear grid, as precise as mathematical graphing paper. Initiated by Thomas Jefferson in 1784, the survey recast North America into a land estranged from its people, a featureless blank slate modeled on absolute mathematical space. This mathematical landscape, Jefferson believed, made the land suitable for unconstrained use by free settler-farmers, who would form the backbone of the republic. Written into the western landscape, the great American grid carries Jefferson's vision of free exploitation of the land into the present.
ISSN:0037-783X
1944-768X
1944-768X
DOI:10.1353/sor.2018.0018