River of Dreams

This new study examines the Mississippi's role in the imagination of the times and explores its cultural position in antebellum literature, art, thought, and national life. From Thomas Jefferson's vision of the Mississippi to Andrew Jackson and the rowdy river culture of the nineteenth century, Smith charts the river's shifting importance in the making of the nation. He explores the accounts of European travelers including Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray, whose views were heavily influenced by the world of the steamboat and plantation slavery. He also discusses the importance of visual representations of the Mississippi to reveal ways the river echoed notions of manifest destiny and westward movement. Finally, Smith's epilogue provides a discussion of the Mississippi during the Civil War and an introduction to Mark Twain.

Thomas Ruys Smith is a lecturer in American literature and culture at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.