Presenting America's World

'National Geographic' is probably the most visible and popular expression of geography in the US, a cultural standard-bearer. This book presents a critical analysis of the world portrayed by this magazine, from its formative years through 1945. It situates the National Geographic Society's development within the context of a new American overseas expansionism, interrogates the magazine as America's ubiquitous source of wholesome exotica and erotica, examines the ways in which it framed the world for its millions of readers, and questions its participation in the cultural work of US global hegemony. It argues that National Geographic successfully employed 'strategies of innocence', a contradictory stance of representation which simultaneously asserts innocence - either the innocence of 'just watching' or the innocence of altruistic behaviour - while naturalising Western hegemony. The book not only examines the world the magazine presented to its readers, but also its own institutional world of writers, photographers, and editors. It focuses on Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the magazine's editor for over 50 years; Maynard Owen Williams, a writer and photographers who worked on nearly 100 articles from 1919 to 1960; and Harriet Chalmers Adams, a freelancer, explorer and Pan-American activist who contributed 21 articles.