Introduction : blinding whiteness and "the wonder of America" -- Roving savages, regionalized Americanness, and the 1862 Dakota Wars -- Emancipation anxiety and the New York City draft riots -- The white gaze, the spectacle of slavery, and the Circassian beauty -- A peculiar identity in the Confederate Southern Illustrated News -- The Yankee, the stump, and the creation of a Confederate imaginary -- What the railroad brought : the "heathen Chinee" and a nation in the West -- The woman question, coast to coast -- Conclusion : consumption, community, and the correspondence column
