Nonfiction

Gun Show Nation: Gun Culture and American Democracy

In a colorful tour of the nation's gun shows from Peoria to Reno, this account describes in vivid detail that mixed with the gun displays are political pamphlets, Second Amemendment treatises, and patriotic literature, and that the men in front of the gun racks are as eager to talk politics as they are to sell their wares.

What People Say

"A brilliant and insightful reading of America's gun culture. Rooted in the history of social violence, [it] illuminates the conflict between 'gun rights' and civil rights in American democracy." Richard Slotkin, author of Gunfighter Nation "On progressive websites and in newspaper columns Gun Show Nation has become part of a lively debate on guns and democracy in America. Goodreads "Careful in her conclusions, lively in her writing, she offers great insight into such contemporary players as the NRA and the sort of Old West vogue that made Reagan a romantic vote getter." Booklist "Burbick gets it. She cuts through to the heart of the psychology of guns." Buzzflash

Rodeo Queens and the American Dream

Joan Burbick traveled the back roads of the rural West for years, interviewing rodeo queens, including rodeo royalty from the 1930s and 1940s, women who grew up breaking wild horses, branding calves, and witnessing the sad decline of ranching life. Stories from white and Native American rodeo queens in the 1950s and 1960s, the golden age of rodeo, reveal the conflicts over gender and race that shaped the rodeo and the Cold War politics of small Western towns. Finally, rodeo queens from the 1970s to the present describe a more fiercely commercial rodeo, driven largely by TV-ratings and sponsorships, glitter and hairspray.

What People Say

"In the testosterone-tossed world of rodeo, Burbick serves up a delectable slice of Americana, illuminating the world of rodeo queens." Atlanta Journal Constitution "Joan Burbick and I (and a million others) live in a real and mythical place called The West, which has been defined, redefined, and revised, and seen with old and new eyes, since about 1492 or so (give or take a few centuries or millennia, as the case may be). This book tells a story about The West that has not been told before. And it tells it with clarity, humor, faith, skepticism, and a guarded kind of love (which is the best kind of love). Rodeo queens are just as important to the idea of The West as Indian chiefs and gunflighters, but more important as their story has not been told. These women with epic hats, epic hair, and epic eye shadow tell epic stories" Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian "[Burbick] is capable of showing us both the glitter and the glamour of the rodeo subculture, and at the same time, some of its deepest contradictions." Los Angeles Times

Healing the Republic

The creation of a national culture in the nineteenth century coincided with a common belief that the emerging nation was diseased and in need of healing. Drawn from narratives written by physicians, social reformers, lay healers and literary artists, this study exposes the conflicts underlying nationalism in the United States.

What People Say

"Burbick has taken on a huge project and has opened up the interrelated histories of medicine, politics, and literature in important new ways." Tom Lutz, American Literature [Burbick provides} readings of an amazingly diverse array of nineteenth-century prose and poetry, ranging from the well known (Walden, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Moby-Dick) to the little known (Domestic Medicine, by John C. Gunn). These readings are imaginative and frequently arresting." Cynthia Russett, Isis

Thoreau's Alternative History

Henry David Thoreau wrote a unique form of natural history in which nature became the basis for perceiving, justifying, and understanding all human action. Critics, however, have conventionally judged Thoreau's rejection of civilization to be a denial of history and a retreat into nature. Interpreting Thoreau's Journals in particular, Joan Burbick examines how Thoreau challenges the stories of civilization while accepting the historical depth of nature's past.

What People Say

Burbick cogently maps Thoreau's attempts to integrate the history of the natural world with human history and to reconcile the result with a transcendental vision." Martin Bickman, Library Journal

Where to Purchase

The University of Pennsylvania Press has reissued this book in its Anniversary Collection. Also, De Gruyter Publishing has made available access to individual chapters.

Beyond Imagined Uniqueness

A collection of essays from a variety of disciplines that explore the contentious issue of nationalism in historical and contemporary settings. Introduction by Joan Burbick

What People Say

"Ranging widely across political and linguistic traditions, Beyond Imagined Uniqueness presents a set of challenging and provocative reassessments of nationalism in the context of global culture." Eric Sundquist, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities The John Hopkins University "This book should reignite discussion of a topic which had begun to die out. These contributions of a new generation of Central and Eastern European scholars are especially welcome." Hayden White, Presidential Professor of Historical Studies, University of California, USA