In this historical analysis, literary criticism, and personal essay, the author explores the links between place and political ideals in the 20th century, focusing in particular on the iconography of the American tradition of using the land to reveal and elaborate our dreams for social justice. Writing with a novelist's sensitivity towards language, the author explores the idea that Americans have historically looked to the land for answers to society's problems. to illustrate this point, she shows that the frontier state with its homestead program was actually the predecessor of the modern welfare state. Instead of money, the federal government gave away land. She shows how we have "forgotten" the politics and history behind this give-away and unravels the significance of this forgetting for our national consciousness. In the second half of the book, the author journeys into three symbolic landscapes: the West, the family farm, and the small community. She looks at these landscapes through the eyes of writers Mari Sandoz and Josephine Johnson, and civil rights activist Ella Baker. Interweaving her own life experiences in this analysis, she traces the relationship between geography