John Opie is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Environmental History and Policy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is the founding editor of the journal Environmental History and the author of Nature's Nation: An Environmental History of the United States and Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, available in a Bison Books edition. Opie currently lives on the Indiana Dunes of Lake Michigan and teaches at the University of Chicago.

"This is the book for any intelligent, concerned, sensitive person who might be given to weeping over the screech of a chain saw when a neighbor fells a tree or depression as developers extend yet another strip mall into the countryside. It has the power to change one's life."-P. D. Travis, Choice Magazine -- P. D. Travis Choice Magazine "In persuasively linking the modern digital technologies of imagined reality to their historical antecedents, Opie has produced an important book and a new framework for understanding the story, one that is all the more relevant the more virtual our reality becomes."-Gregory Summers, Annals of Iowa -- Gregory Summers Annals of Iowa "Opie's book will help us maintain genuine connectivity in the cyber era."-Brian Black, Technology and Culture -- Brian Black Technology and Culture "This book can usefully guide students to think about how Americans have continually reconstructed their sense of place as they searched for an often problematic authenticity." -David E. Nye, American Studies Journal -- David E. Nye American Studies Journal

• Introduction 1. Welcome to VirtuaLand: Old Dreamworlds and the Power of a New Modernity 2. Antique America: Searching for Authenticity 3. Human Kodaks in the Future Perfect: Virtual America Embodied in World's Fairs 4. Sleepwalking in America: A Brief History 5. Finding Authenticity: Inhabiting Place in America Bibliography

John Opie is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Environmental History and Policy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is the founding editor of the journal Environmental History and the author of Nature's Nation: An Environmental History of the United States and Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, available in a Bison Books edition. Opie currently lives on the Indiana Dunes of Lake Michigan and teaches at the University of Chicago.

"This is the book for any intelligent, concerned, sensitive person who might be given to weeping over the screech of a chain saw when a neighbor fells a tree or depression as developers extend yet another strip mall into the countryside. It has the power to change one's life."-P. D. Travis, Choice Magazine -- P. D. Travis Choice Magazine "In persuasively linking the modern digital technologies of imagined reality to their historical antecedents, Opie has produced an important book and a new framework for understanding the story, one that is all the more relevant the more virtual our reality becomes."-Gregory Summers, Annals of Iowa -- Gregory Summers Annals of Iowa "Opie's book will help us maintain genuine connectivity in the cyber era."-Brian Black, Technology and Culture -- Brian Black Technology and Culture "This book can usefully guide students to think about how Americans have continually reconstructed their sense of place as they searched for an often problematic authenticity." -David E. Nye, American Studies Journal -- David E. Nye American Studies Journal

• Introduction 1. Welcome to VirtuaLand: Old Dreamworlds and the Power of a New Modernity 2. Antique America: Searching for Authenticity 3. Human Kodaks in the Future Perfect: Virtual America Embodied in World's Fairs 4. Sleepwalking in America: A Brief History 5. Finding Authenticity: Inhabiting Place in America Bibliography

John Opie is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Environmental History and Policy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is the founding editor of the journal Environmental History and the author of Nature's Nation: An Environmental History of the United States and Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, available in a Bison Books edition. Opie currently lives on the Indiana Dunes of Lake Michigan and teaches at the University of Chicago.

"This is the book for any intelligent, concerned, sensitive person who might be given to weeping over the screech of a chain saw when a neighbor fells a tree or depression as developers extend yet another strip mall into the countryside. It has the power to change one's life."-P. D. Travis, Choice Magazine -- P. D. Travis Choice Magazine "In persuasively linking the modern digital technologies of imagined reality to their historical antecedents, Opie has produced an important book and a new framework for understanding the story, one that is all the more relevant the more virtual our reality becomes."-Gregory Summers, Annals of Iowa -- Gregory Summers Annals of Iowa "Opie's book will help us maintain genuine connectivity in the cyber era."-Brian Black, Technology and Culture -- Brian Black Technology and Culture "This book can usefully guide students to think about how Americans have continually reconstructed their sense of place as they searched for an often problematic authenticity." -David E. Nye, American Studies Journal -- David E. Nye American Studies Journal

• Introduction 1. Welcome to VirtuaLand: Old Dreamworlds and the Power of a New Modernity 2. Antique America: Searching for Authenticity 3. Human Kodaks in the Future Perfect: Virtual America Embodied in World's Fairs 4. Sleepwalking in America: A Brief History 5. Finding Authenticity: Inhabiting Place in America Bibliography