National parks are the places that present ideas of nature to Americans: Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone bring to mind quintessential and awe-inspiring wilderness. By examining how rhetoric--particularly visual rhetoric--has worked to shape our views of nature and the "natural" place of humans, Observation Points offers insights into questions of representation, including the formation of national identity.

As Thomas Patin reveals, the term "nature" is artificial and unstable, in need of constant maintenance and reconstruction. The process of stabilizing its...

National parks are the places that present ideas of nature to Americans: Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone bring to mind quintessential and awe-inspiring wilderness. By examining how rhetoric--particularly visual rhetoric--has worked to shape our views of nature and the "natural" place of humans, Observation Points offers insights into questions of representation, including the formation of national identity.

As Thomas Patin reveals, the term "nature" is artificial and unstable, in need of constant maintenance and reconstruction. The process of stabilizing its...