Book News

A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore will be published on November 11, 2025 with St. Martin’s Press. You can preorder a copy wherever books are sold online, though Bookshop is the preference.

Below are examples of Matt’s work related to the issues of Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and historical memory:

• [Zocalo Public Square] Who Makes the Meaning of Mount Rushmore?

• [Literary Hub] On the Many and Contradictory Histories of Mount Rushmore

• [The Boston Globe] The idea of reducing Mount Rushmore to a totem for MAGA America would be a mistake

• [The Guardian] ‘The Rushmore story is hard to tell’: how an Indigenous park leader revealed the monument’s dark side

• [Slate] The Empire Makers: Donald Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore would make more historical sense than you think. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

• [The Hill] Trump’s ‘National Garden of Heroes’ doesn’t belong in the Black Hills

This page will be updated with associated podcasts, events, and reviews as they become available.

Thank you for your support!

Reviews & Awards

• [South Dakota Humanities Council] South Dakota One Book 2026

• [NPR] After 100 years of Mount Rushmore, its biographer says the landmark is incomplete

• [Air Mail] Moving Mountains

• [Hyperallergic] Chipping Away at the Facade of Mount Rushmore

Broadcast/Podcast Appearances

• [Listening to America with Clay Jenkinson] #1690 Mount Rushmore Its Back Story and the Continuing Controversy

• [America: The Story of the USA] What is Mount Rushmore?

• [C-SPAN] Author Matthew Davis discussed the history of Mt. Rushmore including economic and political forces that influenced the memorial's creation in 1925.

• [NPR: All Things Considered] The Mount Rushmore we know wasn't the one originally planned

• [CBS News] The origins and meaning of Mount Rushmore with Major Garrett

• [CBS News] The Takeout with Major Garrett

• [In Conversation with Frank Schaeffer]

• [Something you Should Know]

• [Think Back Podcast] with Richard Kreitner

• [It's a History Podcast] with Madison Schmidt

• [Axelbank Reports History & Today] with Evan Axelbank

• [Civics and Coffee] A History Podcast

• [The Source] on Texas Public Radio

• [Arroe Collins Like It's Live]

• [On the Margin] with Ethelbert Miller

• [Upstart Crow]

• [History of Philosophy] Carved In Stone: Matthew Davis on Mount Rushmore, Wounded Knee & Medals of Honor, Deadwood, the Lakota, Stone Mountain and the Klan, American Aesthetics, Custer, Whitman, Jackson, and the Black Hills

• [Keen on America] Mount Rushmore: America’s Most Monumental Contradiction

• [Axelbank Reports] Interview With Matthew Davis

• [American History Hotline] Can We Add a Fifth Face to Mount Rushmore? The History and Future of the Monument

• [In the Moment] Rethinking Rushmore: Book explores the meaning of a national memorial

• [Who ARTed] The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore

Matt’s Latest on Substack