Book Presentation and Conversation with Miles Orvell and Kerstin Schmidt
Americans in the 21st century inhabit a perpetual state of ruins – from abandoned factories and malls to toxic landscapes and the looming threat of climate ruins. Ruins, once symbols of the past, are now symbols of the future. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, Empire of Ruins discovers a changing pattern of meaning in the way ruins have been perceived and represented, from the 19th century to the present. Orvell explains why Americans at first yearned for the ruins of Europe and the Middle East, discovering gradually in the 19th century that the remains of Native American cultures were as ancient and mysterious as Egypt’s[…]