On the Rim: Looking for the Grand Canyon

By Mark Neumann

Book Overview

Why do nearly five million people travel to the Grand Canyon each year? Mark Neumann answers this question with a book as compelling as the panoramic vistas of the canyon. In On the Rim, he describes how the Grand Canyon became an internationally renowned tourist attraction and cultural icon, and delves into the meanings the place holds for the individuals who live, work, and travel there.

Weaving history, ethnography, documentary photography, and autobiography, Neumann exposes the roots--the personal and social dimensions--of America's pursuit of leisure. He shows how people visiting the Grand Canyon create their own experiences, even while they are affected by one hundred years of social history and cultural expectations. On the Rim examines the lines between progress and nostalgia, science and spirituality, nature and culture, authenticity and mass production, and work and leisure--all of which crisscross the tourist experience.

To support his argument, Neumann uses evidence from tourist registers and Park Service records, first-person narratives, interviews, and scenes from television shows, Hollywood movies, and popular novels. Heavily illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs, the narrative shifts back and forth between early descriptions of the canyon and modern tourist stories, the past illuminating the present at every step.

From Albert Einstein's visit and the hunt for the fugitive Danny Horning to the everyday experiences of local Native Americans, park rangers, and vacationing families, Neumann reminds us that every trip to the Grand Canyon is a complex journey, fueled by shared expectations but always open to the possibility of surprise. On the Rim is a multilayered, nuanced study of the place and its many visitors.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816627851
• ISBN13: 9780816627851
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.8" x 9.8"

Customer Reviews

A gem in the field of American cultural studies

This book is as grand in scope as the canyon itself, taking in ethnography, history, biography, and criticism. The thoroughness of Neumann's research, the sensitivity of his observations and the insight and wit of his language are reminiscent of the work of new journalist masters such as Gay Talese and Jane Kramer. Neumann brilliantly documents how "spectator culture" goes far back into U.S. history, into the receding zone of nostalgia that we look to for our origins. Also fascinating are his accounts of how the canyon has been framed by science and religion, and how the canyon's developers staged it in the manner of a theater or museum. I especially appreciated Neumann's sensitive and thoughtful use of tourists' stories. It would have been easy to make fun of the canyon's tourists and to present them as the ultimate mass culture nightmare. Instead, Neumann prompts the reader to think about the popular logics and traditions that lie behind tourists' practices. Neumann concludes with a meditation on why people keep coming to the canyon through "the depths of time"--what they come looking for, what they think they can create or recover. It is a moving finale for this fine book.

A must read for Canyon Lovers

Having traveled to the Grand Canyon many times during my life I am always taken in by its true greatness and wonder. This book goes beyond the countless picture books that have been published on the canyon by giving the reader some real insight. The author gives several different perspectives on the canyon that you are not likely to learn by just touring the canyon for a few hours. This book lets true Grand Canyon lovers experiance the canyon in depth and make the reader eager to return and see it from a deeper perspective.

Entertaining and solid scholarship

On the Rim is a fascinating study of the power of the Grand Canyon in American Culture. The author's breadth of knowlege is impressive, pulling together elements of anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology and literary/artistic criticism. His scholarship is impeccable, but the strength of the book is his personal stories of the people he has met and his own encounters with the Canyon.