Americans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny, they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power, they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty, they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force while claiming to submit to its will.

Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, Inventing Niagara traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at Niagara.

From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn, Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis, Inventing Niagara shows us how understanding the cultural history of nature might help us rethink our place in it today.

Length: 352 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Audible Narration: Audible Narration Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible narration. Add narration for a reduced price of $4.49 after you buy the Kindle book. Ready	Language: English

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"Niagara Falls is where America discovered the sublime. And Ginger Strand has discovered everything that happened since. If you want to understand our relationship with the natural world, you better read this book." -- Bill McKibben, author of The Bill McKibben Reader

"Here we have two captivating stories -- one about America's most famous waterworks, and the other about how a self-proclaimed 'hydrogeek' schooled herself in the myths and meaning of the great falls. Displaying wit and verve on a scale worthy of her subject, Ginger Strand shows that Niagara has been harnessed, perhaps to a greater degree than any other of our natural wonders, to human purposes." -- Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe

"A brilliantly entertaining history of America's original natural wonder and its heedless boosters and failed visionaries." -- Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz and Planet of Slums

"As engaging as it is insightful, Inventing Niagara is a careful and caring study of how myth and machine have covered over a great natural place. Peeling back the myths and looking behind the machines, as she brilliantly does, Strand reveals who we have been and who we need to become." -- Curtis White, author of The Spirit of Disobedience and The Middle Mind

"This is a deep and exhilarating book. Its material could have been played for irony, but Strand chose profundity instead, burrowing down through self-conscious layers of artifice until she arrives at a place both strange and vital." -- David Gessner, author of Soaring with Fidel --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Ginger Strand was raised in Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Her fiction and essays have appeared in many places, including The Believer, The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Carolina Quarterly. She has been awarded fiction residencies by Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. She lives in New York City. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

File size : 1501 KB
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 352 pages
Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Illustrated edition (6 May 2008)
Language: : English
ASIN : B0018MS1UK
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: 1,947,340 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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- 740 in Mid-Atlantic United States History
- 873 in Historical Geography

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Texas Teacher

while creating a ghost town full of empty useless buildings and structures that serve no purpose

Reviewed in the United States on 4 February 2015

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Having grown up in the city of Niagara Falls, NY, I truly appreciate how Ms. Strand has chronicled the demise of the city over the past two centuries. Avarice were/are the primary factors that led, and continue to lead, the politicians of this once thriving town to sell out to seedy developers, whose only interest is to make money off their ill advised schemes. Essentially the politicians of the 1960-70's did the most damage to the city, with their "urban renewal" projects that decimated the historic downtown and thereby ruined the tourist trade forever in the city, while creating a ghost town full of empty useless buildings and structures that serve no purpose. It's a sad place to visit as it continues to go into decline with each passing decade. Meanwhile across the border in Canada, the tourist trade is bigger than ever.

2 people found this helpful

Fallingwaters

An idiosyncratic, first person look at Niagara Falls. ...

Reviewed in the United States on 23 January 2017

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An idiosyncratic, first person look at Niagara Falls. She has a journalist's bent, not a historian's, and this is neither a guide book for the curious nor a deeply researched history. With a brief overview of the history of the falls, she move on to interview people that catch her interest. The owners of two of Clifton Hill's tourist stops are made somewhat interesting; she indulges in her own gentle sarcastic commentary in lieu of any attempt at objective conclusions.

niagarajeff

You will love it or hate it

Reviewed in the United States on 28 August 2008

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Ginger, I am being quite informal here, is a self described fanatic about Niagara Falls. So am I. Thus, while reading her book I felt like I had found a long lost friend. We could converse (although she could not hear me!) the many subjects about the lost Niagara, the damaged Niagara,the changed Niagara, the abused Niagara; well I could go on and on. (I wish someone could force the power companies, for one lousy day, to let the water flow naturally but I digress......)

Here's what I suggest. If you are one of these people that goes to Niagara Falls and can look for a few hours and be content to move on to the casinos or Clifton Hill entertainment (ie Ripley's, haunted houses, water slides) then you are not going to appreciate this book very much. However, if you really want to know some real "geeky" (my kids word for me, alas) stuff about hydro power, chemical landfills, misplaced mice killed by radiation, etc. then you will probably adore this book, as I did. The book scores on many levels.

12 people found this helpful

Danielle Barry

Must read if you're going to Niagra Falls

Reviewed in the United States on 3 September 2014

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it made me want to go to Niagra Falls and follow the author's footsteps. She approaches the topic from several different fascinating and rather quirky perspectives. The writing style is engaging as well, a very nice balance of scholarly and breezy. My only very small complaint: although I enjoyed a lot of the details of her research process, I sometimes found the personal details and humor a little grating over the long haul. That said, I would still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, travel, the environment, art, feminism, or pop culture.

Ziloni

Very hard to put down once you start reading.

Reviewed in the United States on 13 January 2015

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Wow. I grew up near Niagara falls and we visited often. It remains one of my favorite places. I've only begun the book, but am very pleasantly surprised by the writing style and content. Very hard to put down once you start reading.

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