Delusions and Grandeur by Mark Sundeen
In these new and selected essays, Mark Sundeen recounts two decades of political activism, outdoor exploration, and empathetic curiosity. He was both witness to and active participant in pivotal cultural and political events of the new millennium, from Howard Dean's presidential campaign to the Iraq War protests and the NoDAPL uprising in Standing Rock. But what brings these large phenomena into humanistic focus is the cast of idiosyncratic people he meets. Using first-person reportage, well-crafted storytelling, and wry, self-deprecating humor, Sundeen's keen observations illustrate what everyday life is like for people in the contemporary American West, with all their systemic precarities and individual triumphs.
"Delusions and Grandeur is about what it means to be a man in the west—but if that conjures images of steely-eyed cowboys and oilmen, put those out of your mindWhat struck me most is just how gorgeously tenderhearted, vulnerable, and emotionally engaged these essays and their characters are. If a smallish group of men have been the main perpetrators of the destruction of our planet, a larger group, including many of those in this fine book, have been their victims—and survivors." - Vauhini Vara, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Immortal King Rao
"This is the West as seen through the eyes of ordinary people with extraordinary connections who have explored politics, literature, environment, and the act of being human. Sundeen has an uncanny knack for finding himself in the thick of things. Once there, he dives deep and reports back with an unerring eye. As a writer, I'm exhausted imagining what he went through to get these stories, but as a reader I'm carried along and come away feeling like I've been everywhere." - Craig Childs, author of Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau
"This is the West as seen through the eyes of ordinary people with extraordinary connections who have explored politics, literature, environment, and the act of being human. Sundeen has an uncanny knack for finding himself in the thick of things. Once there, he dives deep and reports back with an unerring eye. As a writer, I'm exhausted imagining what he went through to get these stories, but as a reader I'm carried along and come away feeling like I've been everywhere." - Craig Childs, author of Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau
Mark Sundeen is the author of four other books about the American West: The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America; Car Camping: The Book of Desert Adventures; The Making of Toro: Bullfights, Broken Hearts, and One Author's Quest for the Acclaim He Deserves; and The Man Who Quit Money, which was a national bestseller and has been translated into six languages. A contributing editor for Outside Magazine, his work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, The Believer, and Best American Essays. He is an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Montana.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780826367648 |
| ISBN 10 | 082636764X |
| Title | Delusions and Grandeur |
| Author | Mark Sundeen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of New Mexico Press |
| Year published | 2025-03-31 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |