The Last American

So begins this eerie science fiction and cautionary tale that takes place in the year 2951. Written in 1889 by the founder and editor of Life magazine, John Ames Mitchell, The Last American is a quick though somewhat unsettling read. Beginning in Persia, the reader is taken along with a group of travelers who voyage across the ocean to find the remains of a once great nation, Merhika. Landing first in Nh-Yok and later then in Washington, the reader follows these travelers as they make their way about the ruins, all the while commenting and comparing Persian society with the lost American society that they have found a society, a race of people that they saw as purely imitative; simply an enlarged copy of other nationalities extant at the time. A society that was obsessed with pleasure and money, with their chief passion being to buy and sell. And also a society that suddenly disappeared as a result of frightful climatic changes which swept the country like a mower s scythe. If this book had been written today, with global warming and climate change at the forefront of issues facing America, and as well in light of our current relations with Iran, the reader might not be surprised by the possibility of such a tale. However, and as noted above, this story was was written over one hundred years ago, and that makes this tale and its ending all the more troubling.