David E. Nye – författare

David Nye's Narratives and Spaces examines how photography, the railroad, electricity, space flight and the computer became central, yet often contradictory, parts of the way Americans construct and narrate their culture, whether as western settlers, consumers or tourists. The book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on topics at the centre of contemporary debate and draws on a wide range of cultural media.This is a significant contribution to American cultural history, and like David Nye's previous award-winning books, is written to be accessible to a wide audience. It is the first volume in a new UEP series, Representing American Culture. This series exists to publish lively, accessible and up-to-date studies of the culture of the United States. Whether devoted to topics in popular, middlebrow or high culture, books in the series explore the ways in which ideological assumptions may be seen to be represented. The series is edited by Mick Gidley, Professor of American Literature at the University of Leeds.

David Nye's Narratives and Spaces examines how photography, the railroad, electricity, space flight and the computer became central, yet often contradictory, parts of the way Americans construct and narrate their culture, whether as western settlers, consumers or tourists. The book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on topics at the centre of contemporary debate and draws on a wide range of cultural media.This is a significant contribution to American cultural history, and like David Nye's previous award-winning books, is written to be accessible to a wide audience. It is the first volume in a new UEP series, Representing American Culture. This series exists to publish lively, accessible and up-to-date studies of the culture of the United States. Whether devoted to topics in popular, middlebrow or high culture, books in the series explore the ways in which ideological assumptions may be seen to be represented. The series is edited by Mick Gidley, Professor of American Literature at the University of Leeds.

Millions of Americans moved west to settle the Mississippi Valley and the Great Plains during the tumultuous nineteenth century. In 1850, Dr. James Dudley Gray (1821–1894) set out for Iowa from Marietta, Ohio, following a family migration path pioneered by his oldest brother a decade earlier. Sorrow and Satisfaction: The Life of Dr. James Dudley Gray takes readers along on Gray's journey, revealing what it was like to settle the frontier, suffer bankruptcy, witness religious persecution, confront Locofoco politicians, assist enslaved people on the Underground Railroad, work as a country doctor and Civil War surgeon, and found a town that prospered but then withered away.Gray's story also recounts his unrequited love for his cousin Mary, who refused to marry him. His eloquent letters to her reveal his life from 1841 to the Civil War, chronicling his thoughts on religion, politics, abolition, women's rights, and technological change. While in Ohio, Gray co-owned the Belmont Farmer, an abolitionist newspaper published in Bridgeport, just across the Ohio River from Wheeling, in the slave state of Virginia. Although the venture was not a success, the paper vividly records Gray's conviction that freedom is a human right.A preeminent historian of technology, David E. Nye, analyzes Gray's life for insight about the social and political environment of his time. Sorrow and Satisfaction provides a valuable resource for history scholars as well as anyone interested in a historical perspective on one of the most turbulent periods in American history.