Customer Reviews

The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

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In The Legacy of Conquest, Patricia Nelson Limerick puts forth her thesis that the conquest of the Trans-Mississippi West is an ongoing economically driven process. Focusing on the West as a physical place rather than a mythic ideal, the author demonstrates how the frontier never closed and that the conquest continues to this day. The book looks at the conquerors of the West and the obstacles they face from Native peoples, westward expansion, immigration, and government interference or the lack thereof. Those coming west did not come with the idea of destroying the land or the Indians, but with the hope of economic improvement and opportunity.
Few people coming west concerned themselves with the Native Americans whose land they began to occupy. Farmers, ranchers, and miners seeking wealth worried more about their own survival than the survival of Indians. Many pioneers portrayed themselves as victims when their dreams of wealth came face to face with the reality of grasshopper plagues, overgrazed ranges, and barren mines. This self-victimization continues to this day with these same groups decrying government waste while asking for subsidies. However, some who came to the west did become true victims.
Some of those who came west in an attempt to make their fortune mining ended up working in the mines of large companies or working other low paying jobs. Those who worked in the mines put themselves in grave danger everyday. With no safety regulations and labor laws that blamed workers for their injuries, mining was one of the deadliest occupations. Attempts to unionize Mineworkers led to mine owners using violence and murder to dissuade union membership. Many who worked the mines immigrated from England and Ireland. These European immigrants, while low on the class scale, were not as low as those who came from a different ethnic background.
Non-white immigrants all faced similar experiences. Chinese immigrants, hoping to improve their lives, faced hostility from all sides. Local and state governments barred them from living in certain areas, bringing over their families, and working in all but the most menial and dangerous of occupations. Mexicans and Latinos who came to work in agriculture faced constant harassment and persecution that continues to this day. The idea that an immigrant is taking a job from an American plays a large part in anti-immigration movements to this day. Unfortunately, most who oppose immigration refuse to realize that the jobs immigrants perform are ones that most Americans consider to menial or low paying to perform. Limerick's weaving of the past and present together shows how the problems of the Old West are still with us today.
The author does an excellent job of examining the past problems of the West and showing how they are unresolved. Arguments between ranchers and the federal government persist over grazing fees. Farmers receive payments for not growing certain crops. Mining laws allow companies to buy land for a shockingly low price and strip it of its mineral worth and beauty. Native Americans, pushed onto reservations, are now suing for the enforcement of past treaties. Limerick shows the irony of the attitude of the West in pushing the federal government away with one hand while reaching for a handout with the other.
While The Legacy of Conquest is highly recommended to students of American history, it does have its flaws. The author overuses metaphor in the early chapters of the book, making it read more like an opinion piece than a historical one. The author's inclusion of the Mormon Church's problems seems forced and does not belong in a book about the economically driven conquest of the American West. Limerick also uses a non-chronological approach that may bother some readers. However, the author does an excellent job at combining primary and secondary sources into an interesting book. Despite some minor problems, Limerick shows that while the appearance of the West changes the conquest of the West continues.

Limerick's work here is outstanding. Here ability to tie in the violence of the western expansion to our current myths and current behavior is terrific. Moreover, in addition to be an eye-opening and informative work, it is an enjoyable read as well. A must have for anyone who has an interest in Western history, or who simply wants to learn more about US history.

Anyone who still believes with Frederick Jackson Turner that the West somehow "closed" in 1898 should read this book. Limerick advances the thesis that the same boom-bust cycles and the same struggles over land, water, and mineral rights that characterized the "Wild West" are continuing to this day. She writes in an engaging style that combines well-told narrative with penetrating analysis.

Limerick's writing is vivid and engaging. The organization of her chapters is excellent. She critiques every aspect of the Turner thesis. Her book is/was the opening salvo in the New Western History that looks at the American West as a region instead of a process of frontiers. Limerick seeks to include everyone in her story of the American West, not just white, Anglo-American cowboys and Native Americans. A wonderful book. There is NEW stuff in this book, in that before her few historians of the west looked at women, Asians, Indians from their perspective, blacks, etc. A must read for any student of the American West!

They say this is the Anti-Turner Frontier Thesis book...The author pretty much states her hypothesis (anti-hypothesis?) from the beginning...And the rest of the book is support material....She does a good job at supporting her theory...It's pretty much what the title says..Conquest, and to an extent, exploitation...Shady land speculators, shady lawyers, shady mine owners, railroad barons, etc. Also the mistreatment of the native Americans and the Chinese...The book is very well researched...I guess if you read BOTH "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and this book..you have both bases covered..I have to admit..I lean a little more toward the "conquest"/capitalism side of the argument after reading this book....

Limerick's text is quite simply the most important work in social and intellectual history of the American West of the past several decades. Scholarly yet readable, the appropriately documented text includes historic photographs as well. The final chapter, "The Burdens of Western American History," is commonly and effectively used in college classes in history, American Studies, environmental ethics, and other areas. A GREAT text to give to the child or nephew/niece going off to college because it introduces the reader to such a wide, interdisciplinary context of understanding.

Yes, the title of my review is correct; this is one of the only history books that I have purchased in cash for use on a school project. "The Legacy of Conquest" is a good history book, and it is a good work on the West from a so-called "modern" perspective, whatever that means. Although it appears to be essentially comprehensive in its treatment of the expansion period, it is at times episodic, and subjects that Ms. Limerick favors understandably are given more coverage. By the way, although it's a good book, I didn't buy it because I was enthralled, I bought it because I couldn't find it at the library. If you want a fantastic, heavy, huge, and totally comprehensive survery of western expansion, the best book by far to get your hands on is Ray Allen Billington's "Westward Expansion," which I believe is now out of print.

Although Limerick writes in a beautiful narrative and shows a few good ideas (the thought that the West existed before Euro-Americans "discovered" it), she came up with nothing new. Her book glosses over much of western history and lacks information in many specific and important areas of interest. Pass on this one if you are looking for historical depth.

Considering that "Legacy of Conquest" is one of those touchstone must reads for anyone in "New Western History" this book was a disappointmememt. Limerick continuously shifts from the present to the past and back again the book becomes quite disjointed and sometimes confusing.

After reading the book I now know how a graduate course I took on the American West was structured. The professor had to be a disciple of Limerick's thesis.

I do agree that the West has constantly portrayed itself as victim, whether being victimized by Indians, railroads or mining, oil and timber interests or the federal government. During boom times Westerners strut and show off their rugged individualism; but when the bust comes and it always does, they are the first with their hand out for help. Western states are the first to complain when cities like New York ask for aid to fund mass transit, but raise their grazing fees or irrigation costs they scream that big government is taking advantage of them.

If Limerick had chosen either the present day West or the West of the 19th century and stuck to one or the other the book would have been more enjoyable. Despite my misgivings anyone interested in New Western History should read the book, however anyone else who takes a different view of this current philosophy in vogue of western history should be prepared for disappointment.

Limerick's book is thoughtful and enjoyable to read. It covers in broad detail many aspects of Western History and seeks to give the Old West a more inclusive and broad face. There are parts that may be uncomfortable to some, but her analysis is thoughtprovoking and well reasoned. Almost everything about Western history is discussed here.