American monster : how the nation's first prehistoric creature became a symbol of national identity / Paul Semonin.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 447-462) and index.

Introduction: Patriotism and prehistoric nature -- The giant of Claverack in Puritan America -- The antediluvian world as a "new found land" -- The mystery of the Siberian mammoth -- Big Bone Lick : "the place where the elephant bones are found" -- The American incognitum in Paris -- The anatomy of a carnivore -- The "monstrous grinders" in the American Revolution -- The doctrine of monsters reborn -- American degeneracy and white supremacy -- The savagery of prehistoric nature -- "Monarch of the wilderness" -- The elephant with claws -- Exhumation of the monster -- The mastodon of nations -- The mastodon in the age of dinosaurs -- Afterword: The myth of wild nature.

Examines the thoughts and myths surrounding the excavation of the first complete mastodon skeleton in 1801 and explores how the mastodon became the symbol of American national identity.