America's Ocean Wilderness: A Cultural History of Twentieth-Century Exploration

摘要

Gary Kroll states his thesis directly: "the ocean in the twentieth-century American imagination took on many of the characteristics that were typically associated with frontier territories: a trove of inexhaustible resources, an area to be conserved for industrial capitalism, a fragile ecosystem requiring stewardship and protection from 'civilizing' forces, a geography for sport, a space for recreation, and a seascape of inspiration" (p. 7). Whether or not America's westward frontier ended at the Pacific's shores, the frontier thesis has apparently unfurled sails and continued.