Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore by Matthew Davis (Mongolia 2000-02)

Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore

Imprint publisher: St. Martin’s Press

November 2025 / ISBN 9781250285102

Available for preorder on Macmillan Publishers

A comprehensive narrative history of Mt. Rushmore, written in light of recent political controversies, and a timely retrospective for the monument’s 100th anniversary in 2025

“Well, most people want to come to a national park and leave with that warm, fuzzy feeling with an ice cream cone. Rushmore can’t do that if you do it the right way. If you do it the right way people are going to be leaving pissed.”

Gerard Baker, the first Native American superintendent of Mt. Rushmore, shared those words with author Matthew Davis. From the tragic history of Wounded Knee and the horrors of Indian Boarding Schools, to the Land Back movement of today, Davis traces the Native American story of Mt. Rushmore alongside the narrative of the growing territory and state of South Dakota, and the economic and political forces that shaped the reasons for the Memorial’s creation.

A Biography of A Mountain combines history with reportage, bringing the complicated and nuanced story of Mt. Rushmore to life, from the land’s origins as sacred tribal ground; to the expansion of the American West; to the larger-than-life personality of Gutzon Borglum, the artist who carved the presidential faces into the mountain; and up to the politicized present-day conflict over the site and its future. Exploring issues related to how we memorialize American history, Davis tells an imperative story for our time.

About the author

Matthew Davis (Mongolia 2000-02) left the University of Missouri-Columbia to join the Peace Corps as an English teacher in the remote western province of Mongolia. The wide-open country and its alien – to Western eyes – culture fascinated him so that when his time was up, he stayed in Mongolia for another year. For this year, though, he lived in the capital city of Ulaan Baatar in order to experience urban Mongolia. The people were exchanging their traditional nomadic culture for a more sedentary lifestyle even as the government was continuing its transition from communism to free market, and the change was not an easy one. Alcoholism was a way of life, and with it came increased violence – for the Mongolians and for Davis, who found himself badly beaten and naked in a hospital after another drunken night in a string of drunken nights. Davis recounts his experiences, good and bad, in his well-received book, When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale, which also features several essays on the history and customs of Mongolia that reveal his fondness for the culture and people of his host country.

Note from Matthew Davis

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, I have spent the past several years working on a book about Mount Rushmore. The book has taken me to the beautiful Black Hills many times, and it explores both a fascinating period of American history and critical contemporary debates about how we memorialize that history.

I am so happy to announce that A BIOGRAPHY OF A MOUNTAIN: THE MAKING AND MEANING OF MOUNT RUSHMORE, will be out on November 11, 2025. You can both view and pre-order it here. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250285102/abiographyofamountain/

The book arrives at a very fraught time for the United States, and I hope it will contribute to an important conversation about how we tell and memorialize our histories, and how those histories reflect our contemporary selves and our current country.

In the lead up to the book’s publication, I hope to publish a series of excerpts and pieces that reflect the terrain the book covers. Today, Slate is running a piece of mine about recent legislation that was introduced to include Trump on Mount Rushmore. I hope you will have a read.

The mountain of Rushmore has made me deeply consider the intersection of place and history, an intertwining that has long held my interest. How history impacts place and how place impacts history will be the subject of a Substack I plan to launch in the coming weeks. I hope you allow me to include you on the initial distribution list, as in addition to exploring this theme, Substack will be how I share news about the book both towards and after publication.

Thanks so much for your support. I hope to see all of you at some point in the coming year!

Warmly,

Matt