Customer Reviews

A Companion to the American West (Blackwell Companions to American History)

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This is a brilliant work with several historiographic essays on the American West (Andrew C. Isenberg's, "Environment and the Nineteenth-Century West: Or, Process Encounters Place," especially jumps out at me). However, Blackwell publishing needs to get busy and issue a paperback, or something a bit more affordable. At over 100 dollars for a brand new copy, and 95 dollars for a new or used issue... Wow. Talk about making your book inaccessible to undergrads and graduate students. Well, the Yale kids can afford it. But think about us provincials at universities that are actually in the American West (I'm thinking mostly eastern Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas). Our parents don't have those durable east-coast and Berkeley kinds of bank accounts. Oh well: in DeVoto's words, a plundered provice yet again.

Yes, the book is unfortunately steeply priced. But perhaps readers can find it in a good library. It has many analyses of the American West. The book rightfully eschews the appelation Wild West; perhaps as being too crude for a scholarly tome.

There is a distinct effort to cover topics that do not neglect viewpoints often deprecated or totally ignored in histories written in earlier decades. So one chapter by Jameson goes into the history of pioneer women. And another by Flamming discusses Negroes. Nor is the period studied confined to the 19th century. Some passages describe the region in the post World War 2 times, especially concerning the effects of tourism.