Cusack (Visual and Cultural Studies) examines the ways that riverscapes have played an important role in transforming the abstract idea of the nation into a potent visual image. Focusing on five rivers in Europe and the U.S.--the Hudson, the Volga, the Seine, the Thames, and the Shannon--the author shows how painted riverscapes helped form national identities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Cusack shows these modern riverscapes have incorporated dominant conceptions of the nation, and represented the mythic stream of national history flowing out of the past and into the future. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)