Introduction: Regionalism and the humanities : decline or revival? / Wendy J. Katz & Timothy R. Mahoney -- Sensing place : the authority of nature -- Dangerous ground : landscape in American fiction / Annie Proulx -- The ec(h)ological conscience : reflections on the nature of human presence in Great Plains environmental writing / William Slaymaker -- "I don't know, but I ain't lost" : defining the Southwest / Mark Busby -- A border runs through it : looking at regionalism through architecture in the Southwest / Maggie Valentine -- Constructing place : the possibility of local representation -- Willa Cather's case : region and reputation / Guy Reynolds -- Dwelling within the place worth seeking : the Midwest, regional identity, and internal histories / Ginette Aley -- Gendered Boosterism : the "doctor's wife" writes from the new Northwest / Barbara Handy-Marchello -- "With powder smoke and profanity" : genre conventions, regional identity, and the palisade gunfight hoax / Nicolas S. Witschi -- Place is a relationship : regionalism, nationalism, and transnationalism -- Regionalism and the realities of naming / Stephen C. Behrendt -- The Midwest as a colony : transnational regionalism / Edward Watts -- Transcending the urban-rural divide : Willa Cather's Thea Kronborg goes to Chicago / Mark A. Robison -- Preaching the Gospel of higher vaudeville : Vachel Lindsay's poetic journey from Springfield, Illinois, across America, and back / Larry W. Moore -- Place is political : creating regional cultures -- State pieces in the U.S. regions puzzle : Nevada and the problem of fit / Cheryll Glotfelty -- Imagining place : Nebraska territory, 1854-1867 / Kurt E. Kinbacher -- Architecture crosses region : building in the Grecian style / Patrick Lee Lucas -- Societies and soirees : musical life and regional character in the South Atlantic / Michael Saffle -- List of contributors -- Index.