Continental Divide

Seymour Martin Lipset's highly acclaimed work explores the distinctive character of American and Canadian values and institutions. Lipset draws material from a number of sources: historical accounts, critical interpretations of art, aggregate statistics and survey data, as well as studies of law, religion and government. Drawing a vivid portrait of the two countries, Continental Divide represents some of the best comparative social and political research available.

In the spring of 1929, Martin Heidegger and Ernst Cassirer met for a public conversation in Davos, Switzerland. They were arguably the most important thinkers in Europe, and their exchange touched upon the most urgent questions in the history of philosophy: What is human finitude? What is objectivity? What is culture? What is truth? Over the last eighty years the Davos encounter has acquired an allegorical significance, as if it marked an ultimate and irreparable rupture in twentieth-century Continental thought. Here, in a reconstruction at once historical and philosophical, Peter Gordon reexamines the conversation, its origins and its aftermath, resuscitating an event that has become entombed in its own mythology. Through a close and painstaking analysis, Gordon dissects the exchange itself to reveal that it was at core a philosophical disagreement over what it means to be human. But Gordon also shows how the life and work of these two philosophers remained closely intertwined. Their disagreement can be understood only if we appreciate their common point of departure as thinkers of the German interwar crisis, an era of rebellion that touched all of the major philosophical movements of the dayÑlife-philosophy, philosophical anthropology, neo-Kantianism, phenomenology, and existentialism. As Gordon explains, the Davos debate would continue to both inspire and provoke well after the two men had gone their separate ways. It remains, even today, a touchstone of philosophical memory. This clear, riveting book will be of great interest not only to philosophers and to historians of philosophy but also to anyone interested in the great intellectual ferment of Europe's interwar years.

The topic of the border wall between the United States and Mexico continues to be broadly and hotly debated: on national news media, by local and state governments, and even over the dinner table. By now, broad segments of the population have heard widely varying opinions about the wall's effect on illegal immigration, international politics, and the drug war. But what about the wall's effect on animals? Krista Schlyer vividly shows us that this largely isolated natural area, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, is also host to a number of rare ecosystems.

The Continental Divide Trail explores this iconic crown jewel of America's trails with more than 250 spectacular contemporary images, historical photos and documents from the Continental Divide Trail Coalition archives, and detailed maps. Readers can experience the trail as if their boots were on the 3,100-mile path. This beautifully produced volume makes accessible the highest and most remote of the three crown jewel trails--following the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide, the backbone of America. The Continental Divide Trail presents the full glory of this challenging trail in breathtaking images, ephemera, and maps. While untold thousands of day hikers take advantage of the CDT each year, thru-hiking the entire trail is not for the faint-hearted. In 2017, only 250 people will attempt to hike it end to end. The Continental Divide Trail is perfect for anyone interested in conservation, outdoor recreation, or American history, or for those who dream of one day becoming thru-hikers themselves.This is the first large-format book published in conjunction with the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and the breathtaking photographs make you feel as if you were on the trail. The book includes maps and rarely seen archival images, as well as a written backstory of this great trail. This photo- and information-packed book is a must-have for anyone who has ever caught the magic of the nation's rooftop, the Great Divide. It's an inspirational bucket list for everyone who wants to get outdoors--day hiker, backpacker, fisherman, hunter, and those rare souls--thru-hikers--who dare to attempt hiking it all in one go.With text by Barney Mann, who has thru-hiked all three Triple Crown trails, and a foreword by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, this book makes the trail come alive for both veteran hikers and armchair travelers alike.

Go West, Young Man. Isn't that the advice every east coast boy has considered at least once in his life? At nineteen, almost twenty, Ron Bancroft thinks those words sound pretty good. Newly out as transgender, Ron finds himself adrift: kicked out by his family, jilted by his girlfriend, unable to afford to return to college in the fall. So he heads out to Wyoming for a new start, a chance to prove that—even though he was raised as a girl, even though everyone in Boston thinks of him as transgender—he can live as a man. A real man. In Wyoming, he finds what he was looking for: rugged terrain, wranglers, a clean slate. He also stumbles into a world more dangerous than he imagined, one of bigotry and violence. And he falls for an intriguing young woman, who seems as interested in him as he is in her. Thus begins Ron's true adventure, a search not for the right place in America, but the right place within himself to find truth, happiness, and a sense of belonging.

This magesterial and thrilling history argues that the story of American mountaineering is the story of America itself. In Continental Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists. Climbing began in North America as a pursuit for lone eccentrics but grew to become a mass-participation sport. Beginning with Darby Field in 1642, the first person to climb a mountain in North America, Isserman describes the exploration and first ascents of the major American mountain ranges, from the Appalachians to Alaska. He also profiles the most important American mountaineers, including such figures as John C. Frémont, John Muir, Annie Peck, Bradford Washburn, Charlie Houston, and Bob Bates, relating their exploits both at home and abroad. Isserman traces the evolving social, cultural, and political roles mountains played in shaping the country. He describes how American mountaineers forged a "brotherhood of the rope," modeled on America’s unique democratic self-image that characterized climbing in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II. And he underscores the impact of the postwar "rucksack revolution," including the advances in technique and style made by pioneering "dirtbag" rock climbers. A magnificent, deeply researched history, Continental Divide tells a story of adventure and aspiration in the high peaks that makes a vivid case for the importance of mountains to American national identity.

Once a person hikes a long trail, they catch the bug, but does it get any easier the second time around? Four years after starting the Appalachian Trail with his brother, Brian takes to the Continental Divide Trail for his second thru-hike in familiar company. However, trail life is not always as rewarding and romantic as the pictures you see or second-hand stories you hear. "Divided" provides an accurate account of life on trail: what hikers ponder, eat, love, loathe, and the questions they tire of answering. Some moments are too short, some are painfully long while others are whisked away unceremoniously with the wind. Follow along on the journey as Brian navigates difficulties, successes and everything between while attempting to walk from Mexico to Canada.

Written for both through-hikers of Colorado's more than 700-mile portion of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail and segment hikers doing a section at a time. Book jacket.