The American Far West in the Twentieth Century

by Earl Pomeroy; Edited by Richard W. Etulain; Foreword by Howard R. Lamar

• ISBN13: 9780300120738
• ISBN10: 0300120737
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-10-21
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In this richly insightful survey that represents the culmination of decades of research, a leading western specialist argues that the unique history of the American West did not end in the year 1900, as is commonly assumed, but was shaped as muchif not moreby events and innovations in the twentieth century. Earl Pomeroy gathers copious information on economic, political, social, intellectual, and business issues, thoughtfully evaluates it, and draws a new and more nuanced portrait of the West than has ever been depicted before. Pomeroy mines extensive published and unpublished sources to show how the post1900 West charted a path that was influenced by, but separate from, the rest of the country and the world. He deals not only with the West's transition from an agricultural to an urban region but also with the important contributions of minority racial and ethnic groups and women in that transformation. Pomeroy describes a modern Westincreasingly urban, transnational, and multiculturalthat has overcome much of the isolation that challenged it at an earlier time. His final book is nothing short of the definitive source on that West.

Author Biography

Earl Pomeroy (1915–2005) was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Oregon, Eugene. He wrote numerous groundbreaking books on the American West in the twentieth century, including The Pacific Slope and In Search of the Golden West. Richard W. Etulain is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New Mexico. He is author of Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West and Re-Imagining the Modern American West and coauthor of The American West: A Modern History, 1900 to the Present. He lives in Portland, OR.

 

 

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxv
The West in 1901	p. 1
Agricultural Frontiers: New Farms and Family Farmers	p. 20
Agricultural Frontiers: Farming on New Scales	p. 53
New Forms of Economic Growth	p. 89
Economic Growth from the 1940s	p. 116
The Urban Occupation of the West: Rails, Roads, and Cities	p. 149
Rails, Roads, and Cities from the Second World War	p. 185
Social Relations and Social Attitudes: Cultural Bases	p. 225
Social Relations and Social Attitudes: Putting Down Roots-Agencies of Acculturation	p. 264
Western Politics	p. 300
Expanding Electorates	p. 338
Frontiers of Land and Opportunity: The Variously Far West	p. 376
Notes	p. 405
Supplemental Bibliography	p. 535
Index	p. 549
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