building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

The Wilderness and the frontier, despite the harsh living conditions they offered,
were more than simple territories far from the civilised world, and were not real
barriers either to “manifest destiny” or to the advance of progress. On the contrary,
they became something familiar, in which ordinary observers and daring explorers
could identify themselves.
This wide, cultural picture stimulated the idea that nature was not only an
accessible, but was also an extremely varied world. Basically, American nature was,
at the same time, both an intellectual food and economic resource to be consumed.
These two visions were never really in complete contrast with each to each other;
on the contrary, each one generated the other [Figures 128‐134].
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