Nature's Noblemen

“In this richly nuanced exploration of masculinity in motion, Rico reveals the fluidity and fragility of elite men’s privileges and presumptions.  As the rugged proving ground of western America became the consumable spectacle of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, manliness became a kind of property, in both the economic and the theatrical sense of the word.  No one is a better guide to this complicated cultural terrain than Monica Rico.”—Virginia Scharff, author of The Women Jefferson Loved

~Virginia Scharff

 “By tying western history to British imperial history, this book adds an important new geographic dimension to both fields, while adding to our understanding of inter-imperial relations.”—Kristin Hoganson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

~Kristin Hoganson

“Rico takes us on an erudite journey through the nineteenth century with aristocrats, adventurers, and buckskin hunters, whose engagements with nature, modernity, and masculinity force us to re-imagine the entangled cultural legacies of Britain and the U.S. West.”—Samuel Truett, University of New Mexico

~Samuel Truett