The American Elsewhere: Adventure and Manliness in the Age of Expansion by Jimmy L. Bryan Jr. (review)

In The American Elsewhere: Adventure and Manliness in the Age of Expansion, Jimmy L. Bryan Jr. reexamines the written texts left by adventurers and explorers during the nineteenth century. In contrast to previous historians, who have often written about the actions of these men while ignoring their words, Bryan engages with their writings in a serious fashion to uncover the myriad ways they contributed to the emerging literary marketplace by refashioning traditional genres. In doing so, Bryan uncovers that these men not only left an imprint on the growth of the United States, as they paved the way for the territorial expansion of the mid-nineteenth century, but that they also “took the old charts and remapped the topographies of American manliness” (p. 14). The frontiersmen emerge in these pages as canny manipulators of language, who self-consciously created stories to appeal and entice a larger public. The American Elsewhere thus demonstrates that masculinity, romanticism, and adventurism were malleable constructs that were consciously negotiated and remade over the course of the nineteenth century to prepare the way for the growth of the American empire.

Bryan’s work is organized thematically, although early chapters have a chronological bent to them. His opening chapter, entitled “The Adventurous Impulse,” examines how frontiersmen reconstructed the idea of adventure itself. As Bryan writes: “Working within imprecise definitions and nebulous parameters, [Rev. Timothy] Flint and his contemporaries reconfigured the terms ‘adventure’ and ‘adventurer’ from the crass and derogatory into the enticing and flattering” (p. 18). Bryan’s ensuing chapter builds upon this insight by examining how frontiersmen sought to market this new idea of adventurism to the American public. Bryan’s key insight here is his poignant reminder that “adventurers read avidly” and thus were well aware of both the expectations and demands of the reading public (p. 69). Subsequent chapters interrogate the frontiersmen’s appearance and self-fashioning, the interweaving of sexual desire and sentimentalism, the redefining of masculinity through companionship, and the reimagining of romanticism on the American frontier.

Bryan’s argument is forceful, persuasive, and buttressed by impeccable research. His exploration of primary sources is notable, a fact best exemplified by the more than 125 names listed in his bibliography under published primary sources. His use of primary sources allows him to base his conclusions on a thorough “hacking through” of these texts (p. 8). Even more remarkable is Bryan’s ability to wade into the seemingly innumerable secondary literature in fields ranging from romanticism to transcendentalism. To cite one example of this, in his opening chapter Bryan weaves in arguments from literary scholars, pivots to the work of environmental historians, and ably discusses the findings of several gender historians. In a work such as this, it would have been easy for Bryan to have simply tackled the subfield of romantic literature without wading into the murky waters of sentimentalism, travel literature, and literary theory. Yet this work brings these fields together to create a work of lasting importance. Scholars interested in understanding how changing ideas of masculinity contributed to the expansion of the United States from 1815 to 1848 should read Bryan’s book. Furthermore, historians who want to see how the fresh examination of seemingly trite literary texts can lead to exciting new insight should also read this scholarship.