A review by graypeape
America the Beautiful, by Wendell Minor
3.0
So....I'm torn on this one. On the surface, this is a lovely book, filled with beautiful artwork of various places in the American landscape past and present, all paired with the verses of Katharine Lee Bates' poem "America the Beautiful." The book is put together nicely, with a foreword explaining how Bates came to write the poem, biographical details about Bates and Samuel Augustus Ward, who wrote the music for the hymn, along with example of a hymnal page and handwritten verses of the poem, descriptions of the places shown in the illustrations, and a map showing their locations. It really is a lovely presentation. But....
This is an idealized America, the one I remember from my childhood, before I learned about my nation's complicated history. It feels wrong to include Mt. Rushmore, knowing the creation of it desecrated sacred Native American land. In the two illustrations that acknowledge a Native American presence, they are shown either in the past, or in the Navajo Nation, which called a reservation until 1969. Seeing so many beautiful locations that I now know were taken from the indigenous people who lived there doesn't give me the sense of pride in my country that this book is meant to, it just makes me sad. So, mixed feelings on this book.
#AmericatheBeautiful #NetGalley
This is an idealized America, the one I remember from my childhood, before I learned about my nation's complicated history. It feels wrong to include Mt. Rushmore, knowing the creation of it desecrated sacred Native American land. In the two illustrations that acknowledge a Native American presence, they are shown either in the past, or in the Navajo Nation, which called a reservation until 1969. Seeing so many beautiful locations that I now know were taken from the indigenous people who lived there doesn't give me the sense of pride in my country that this book is meant to, it just makes me sad. So, mixed feelings on this book.
#AmericatheBeautiful #NetGalley