The 'Town' as normative context
 concentration of people
 location at point of access to Europe
 location of government and military resources
 location of economic and legal resources
 location of political resources/polling
 location of establishment/foundational churches
 source and refuge point for non-town people

Desert/Wilderness/Wild/Nature/Barren
 significance of the terms used for the non-town area
 incipient romance:  paradise & "virginity"
 manifest reality:  "wild savages"

Historical experience of the Great American Desert
 Great American Desert=the Southeast Woodlands
 Absence of maps, knowledge of terrain
 Absence of woodsman's skills
 Woodsman vs the tradesman & the gentleman
 Woodsman as renegade/guide/scout
 Woodsman vs. farmer
 Spectrum:  Indian/woodsman/farmer/tradesman/gentleman

Roots of an emergent national tension
 town vs. wood
 rural as the space between town and wood
 rural as having the characteristics of both
 town views the wood via the rural
 wood views the town via the rural

Push/pull
 the pull of the wood and the push of the town generates the rural
 rural as resolution of the town vs. wood tension
 rural primary institutions allow the town to exploit the wood
 rural primary institutions allow the wood to accep the town
 rural as a positive tension