For about a century, the log cabin occupied a central and indispensable role in the rapidly growing United States. Although it largely disappeared as a living space, it lived on as a symbol of the nation's settlement. In her pensive and lavishly illustrated new book, Alison Hoagland sees this disposable abode as a practical solution to housing - easy to build, built on an abundance of trees, and not necessarily permanent - and its evolving place in public memory. Hoagland shows how the log cabin was a uniquely adaptable symbol that met the needs of the cultural moment. It served as a noble birthplace for presidents, but it was also seen as the lowest form of housing in which low-income people lived. It functioned as a model of domesticity, but it was also a staple in a life of aspiration and wandering. Held as a triumph of westward expansion, it was also perceived as a type of building to be discarded in favor of more civilized forms.