The Frontiers of American History in Last Child of the...

In the second chapter of Last Child of the Woods, Richard Louv makes the claim that there have been three frontiers in the course of American history. The first phase was the original frontier, before the Industrial Revolution. This was the time of the prairie schooner, the cowboy, the herds of bison that were thousands strong. This was a rough, hard time, when man and nature were constantly thrown together. There was wilderness to spare, and people were willing to move West to get to it. The second phase came into being after the Industrial Revolution. Land that was available to homesteaders had run out. Yet the American people still considered themselves frontier explorers. Times had been trying during the Westward Expansion,†¦show more content†¦Not only are they taught that building things outside are bad, but because of the disappearance of natural spaces within cities, nature is not as accessible to kids. This leads to what Louv calls, Nature Deficit Disorder, the lack of relationship between children and nature. Richard Louv uses Logos in several different ways throughout this selection. He collects research from many different studies, interviews parents, and finds sources from history. In his second chapter especially, he uses numerous examples of scientific experiments to back his point that people really do not have an adequate realization of the difference between humans and animals. In his third chapter, he conducted an interview with a parent who had moved to a certain neighborhood because of the abundance of outdoor areas. Louv uses this interview to illustrate his point that even if nature is available, it really is not supposed to be used for unstructured recreation. In his second chapter, he draws on U.S. Census Bureau reports to illustrate the decline of the family farm. He uses historical events and ideas to show his idea of the romanticizing of the American frontier. Through these concrete examples, he is able to persuade the reader that his ideas and theories are vali d. I think that Louv is right in his opinion that kids are losing touch with nature. This epidemic is not just in big cities, but wherever technology has a hold. Technology has become