Drifting : two weeks on the Hudson / / Mike Freeman

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910960672403321
• Autore: Freeman Mike <1968->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Albany, : Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press, c2011
• ISBN: 9781438439464; 1438439466; 9781461906377; 1461906377
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (269 p.)
• Collana: Excelsior Editions
• Disciplina: 974.7/3
• Soggetti: Canoes and canoeing - Hudson River (N.Y. and N.J.); Hudson River (N.Y. and N.J.) Description and travel; Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) Description and travel
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references.
• Nota di contenuto: Rivers and the river -- Dimensions -- Mountains and wild -- My land, your land -- The maturity of idols -- Tenting tonight -- Quiet is the word -- Where the wild things were -- The country behind -- Portals -- Cogs and wheels -- Pink flamingos -- The gospel of Dean Wormer -- Borders -- The gravity of Greeks -- The shadow -- Still, still water -- O Hudson -- Red/blue -- Imaginarium -- Into the wild frontier -- Conjugal -- Purging Strangelove -- The wolf -- Such high zest -- The wide water -- Loomings.
• Sommario/riassunto: This candid account of the author's two-week canoe trip down the Hudson River offers an introspective and humorous look at both the river and Recession-Era America. New to fatherhood and fresh from ten years in an Alaskan village, Mike Freeman sets out to relearn his country, and realizes it's in a far greater midlife crisis than he could ever be. With an eye on the Hudson's past, he addresses America's present anxieties—from race, gender, and marriage to energy, labor, and warfare—with empathy and honesty, acknowledging the difficulties surrounding each issue without succumbing to pessimism or ideology.From the river's headwaters in the Adirondacks, Freeman follows the Hudson south through America's first industrial ghost towns, where ; ruin begs for rebirth. Next is the Hudson Valley and the river's 153-mile estuary, with its once-teeming fisheries. Here, agriculture is redefining itself, while at West Point, officer candidates train for America's murky modern wars. The Hudson Highlands, too, are prominent, the place where Americans first wed God to nature, and where the mountains remain a potent place to mull that bond. From there it's on to Manhattan, with its skyline that symbolizes the world's financial might as well as its startling fragility.As controversial as it is comforting, Freeman's narrative makes us think in hard ways about America as the country itself drifts toward an uncertain future. But throughout, of course, is the magnificent Hudson, whose resilient beauty speaks well both to nature's toughness and America's greatest strength—the ability to redirect and change course when necessary.