The Oxford History of the American West

by Milner, Clyde A.; O'Connor, Carol A.; Sandweiss, Martha A.

• ISBN13: 9780195059687
• ISBN10: 0195059689
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-05-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When we think of the American West, we tend to conjure up images that are known the world over: bearded forty-niners leading pack mules up a mountain trail, the Oklahoma land stampede, Custer's Last Stand, and especially the range-riding, quick-shooting cowboy. But these familiar images are only a small part of western history. From the arrival of the Navajos in the Southwest more than seven hundred years ago, to the first Spanish settlements in New Mexico in the late sixteenth century, to the large Mormon migration to the Great Salt Lake, to the tourists flocking to the neon landscape of modern Las Vegas, the complex story of the West stretches across centuries, embracing many voices and contrasting cultures. The West is in fact as varied as America itself. Indeed, to enlarge on Wallace Stegner's singular phrase, the West is America, only more so.
Lavishly illustrated and based on the finest scholarship, The Oxford History of the American West is the first comprehensive study to do full justice to the rich complexity of this region. It brings together the work of twenty-eight leading western historians who explore this area from a dazzling number of perspectives. They provide insightful portraits of the West as a distinctive place of varied peoples--native and non-native, European and Asian, African and Latino--and of varied terrain--from the timbered Pacific Northwest to the Dakota Badlands, and from the fires of Kilauea to the ice cliffs of Glacier Bay, Alaska. They describe the great wealth generated by a series of spectacular bonanzas, such as gold at Sutter's Mill, copper in Butte, Montana, and oil on Alaska's north shore; illuminate the role of the West in the national and global economy; and consider the environmental challenges created by replacing buffalo with cattle or by designating national parks and military test sites. The book also examines the social forces behind the violence of the West, the great political movements that affected the region (most notably, the Populist Party), and the importance of families in settling the West (for instance, tracing one family's westward migration over 150 years). The authors provide important insights about many longstanding controversies, and they offer not only the fruits of the latest thinking about the West, but also a vivid sense of how people actually lived. For instance, we read of pioneers who grated green corn to make pudding they flavored with berries and grasshoppers, and who ate the culms (the soft inner linings of the stalks) like asparagus. Finally, each chapter concludes with an extensive annotated bibliography, offering a full review of related material, and there is a comprehensive index to guide readers to topcis of special interest.
Ranging from a thoughtful analysis of John Ford's classic My Darling Clementine, to a revisionist look at cattle grandee Granville Stuart (once Montana's most revered pioneer), to a survey of Western art and literature (including figures as diverse as Francis Parkman, Frederic Remington, Willa Cather, Georgia O'Keeffe, and N. Scott Momaday), this lively, authoritative volume continually challenges the familiar as it broadens the reader's understanding of a vast and varied region.

Author Biography

About the Editors:
Clyde A. Milner II is Editor of the Western Historical Quarterly and Professor of History at Utah State University. Carol A. O'Connor is Professor of History at Utah State University. Martha A. Sandweiss is Director of Mead Art Museum and Associate Professor of American Studies at Amherst College.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Tables, and Color Plates	ix	(2)
Preface	xi
Introduction: AMERICA ONLY MORE SO	1	(8)
Clyde A. Milner II
SECTION I: HERITAGE	9	(142)
Introduction and Chronology	9	(4)
Clyde A. Milner II
Chapter One: NATIVE PEOPLES AND NATIVE HISTORIES	13	(32)
Peter Iverson
Chapter Two: THE SPANISH-MEXICAN RIM	45	(34)
David J. Weber
Chapter Three: EMPIRES OF TRADE, HINTERLANDS OF SETTLEMENT	79	(36)
Jay Gitlin
Chapter Four: AMERICAN FRONTIER	115	(36)
Elliott West
SECTION II: EXPANSION	151	(276)
Introduction and Chronology	151	(4)
Clyde A. Milner II
Chapter Five: NATIONAL INITIATIVES	155	(40)
Clyde A. Milner II
Chapter Six: ENTERING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY	195	(42)
Keith L. Bryant, Jr.
Chapter Seven: ANIMALS AND ENTERPRISE	237	(38)
Richard White
Chapter Eight: AN AGRICULTURAL EMPIRE	275	(40)
Allan G. Bogue
Chapter Nine: A SAGA OF FAMILIES	315	(44)
Kathleen Neils Conzen
Chapter Ten: RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY	359	(34)
Ferenc M. Szasz
Margaret Connell Szasz
Chapter Eleven: VIOLENCE	393	(34)
Richard Maxwell Brown
SECTION III: TRANSFORMATION	427	(244)
Introduction and Chronology	427	(4)
Carol A. O'Connor
Chapter Twelve: WAGE EARNERS AND WEALTH MAKERS	431	(38)
Carlos A. Schwantes
Chapter Thirteen: THE FEDERAL PRESENCE	469	(32)
Carl Abbott
Chapter Fourteen: POLITICS AND PROTESTS	501	(34)
Michael P. Malone
F. Ross Peterson
Chapter Fifteen: A REGION OF CITIES	535	(30)
Carol A. O'Connor
Chapter Sixteen: ALASKA AND HAWAI'I	565	(38)
Victoria Wyatt
Chapter Seventeen: LANDSCAPES OF ABUNDANCE AND SCARCITY	603	(36)
William Cronon
Chapter Eighteen: CONTEMPORARY PEOPLES/CONTESTED PLACES	639	(32)
Sarah Deutsch
George J. Sanchez
Gary Y. Okihiro
SECTION IV: INTERPRETATION	671	(164)
Introduction and Chronology	671	(4)
Martha A. Sandweiss
Chapter Nineteen: THE VISUAL WEST	675	(32)
Brian W. Dippie
Chapter Twenty: THE LITERARY WEST	707	(36)
Thomas J. Lyon
Chapter Twenty-One: SPEAKING FOR THE PAST	743	(28)
Charles S. Peterson
Chapter Twenty-Two: SELLING THE POPULAR MYTH	771	(32)
Anne M. Butler
Chapter Twenty-Three: COMPARING WESTS AND FRONTIERS	803	(32)
Walter Nugent
Contributors	835	(4)
Index	839