This is an exemplary study of the interconnections between the making of geological knowledge and the creation of a prosperous community of politicians, painters, writers, and men of science in New York State during the early national period. In pulling together many scientific and artistic threads, David Spanagel has woven a rich and colorful tapestry. This imaginative book will be an important contribution to a number of scholarly fields, including the history of geology, studies of American science, and the cultural and intellectual history of nineteenth-century America. -- Paul Lucier, author of Scientists and Swindlers: Consulting on Coal and Oil in America, 1820-1890

David I. Spanagel explores the origins of American geology and the culture that promoted it in nineteenth-century New York. Focusing on Amos Eaton, the educator and amateur scientist who founded the Rensselaer School, and DeWitt Clinton, the masterful politician who led the movement for the Erie Canal, Spanagel shows how a cluster of assumptions about the peculiar landscape and entrepreneurial spirit of New York came to define the Empire State. In so doing, he sheds light on a particularly innovative and fruitful period of interplay among science, politics, art, and literature in American history.