The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford Economics and Finance) [Hardcover]

Terry L. Anderson (Author), Peter J. Hill (Author)

Book Description

Series: Stanford Economics and Finance | Publication Date: May 4, 2004

Mention of the American West usually evokes images of rough and tumble cowboys, ranchers, and outlaws. In contrast, The Not So Wild, Wild West casts America’s frontier history in a new framework that emphasizes the creation of institutions, both formal and informal, that facilitated cooperation rather than conflict. Rather than describing the frontier as a place where heroes met villains, this book argues that everyday people helped carve out legal institutions that tamed the West.

The authors emphasize that ownership of resources evolves as those resources become more valuable or as establishing property rights becomes less costly. Rules evolving at the local level will be more effective because local people have a greater stake in the outcome. This theory is brought to life in the colorful history of Indians, fur trappers, buffalo hunters, cattle drovers, homesteaders, and miners. The book concludes with a chapter that takes lessons from the American frontier and applies them to our modern “frontiers”—the environment, developing countries, and space exploration.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hollywood will never be able to top this portrayal of the history of the West in the U.S. The history that Anderson and Hill depict is the current situation of the majority of entrepreneurs in developing and former Soviet countries. It is not only an extraordinary insight into the genesis of America, but also the key to understanding better the Middle East, Central Asia, and all the Third World today."—Hernando de Soto, President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy

"Emergent, self-ordering institutional arrangements and property right norms are commonplace. But they are invisible to all those who rely upon them to create wealth, and who may believe falsely that all such rules come from legislated law. Anderson and Hill have made visible an impressive array of examples from US frontier history."—Vernon L. Smith, George Mason University, 2002 Nobel Laureate in Economics

“Far from being an anarchic free-for-all, the American West was a ferment of social innovation, a place where men and women strove to invent co-operative arrangements they could trust. Anderson and Hill powerfully undermine the pervasive idea that social order and property rights are imposed from above by the state, and reveal instead that they are usually achieved from below by free negotiation between individuals.”—Matt Ridley, Author of The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation and Nature via Nurture

“The Not So Wild, Wild West represents the best of what the new institutional economics can contribute for understanding economics and political behavior in the American West.” —Gary Libecap, Eller College of Business and Public Administration, The University of Arizona

“This is a book that had to be written, and Anderson and Hill are the ones that had to write it. Literature on the American West has placed too much emphasis on wars, violence, and conflict. Rather time and time again, as this book shows, institutions were devised that peaceably allocated resources and resolved conflicts.” —Mark Kanazawa, Carleton College

From the Inside Flap

Mention of the American West usually evokes images of rough and tumble cowboys, ranchers, and outlaws. In contrast, The Not So Wild, Wild West casts America’s frontier history in a new framework that emphasizes the creation of institutions, both formal and informal, that facilitated cooperation rather than conflict. Rather than describing the frontier as a place where heroes met villains, this book argues that everyday people helped carve out legal institutions that tamed the West.
The authors emphasize that ownership of resources evolves as those resources become more valuable or as establishing property rights becomes less costly. Rules evolving at the local level will be more effective because local people have a greater stake in the outcome. This theory is brought to life in the colorful history of Indians, fur trappers, buffalo hunters, cattle drovers, homesteaders, and miners. The book concludes with a chapter that takes lessons from the American frontier and applies them to our modern “frontiers”—the environment, developing countries, and space exploration.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Stanford Economics and Finance; 1 edition (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804748543
• ISBN-13: 978-0804748544
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Law and Order in the Wild, Wild West, November 14, 2005

By 

F. E. Guerra (San Juan, Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford Economics and Finance) (Hardcover)

P.J. Hill and Terry Anderson, two very respected American economists, have written a very thoughtful book about the spontaneous emergence of law and order in the "Wild, Wild West" of yesteryear. Their love of the great outdoors and of their native state of Montana shows through and through in this beautiful tome. They delve into a variety of fascinating topics in their book, such as the gold rush, the fur trade, the wagon trail, and the Indian wars. In addition, they provide a wonderful overview of the theory of property rights, and their book contains many helpful maps, well-organized charts, and some beautiful pictures. Anyone who is interested not only in the history of the American West but also in economics generally and property rights specifically should take the time to read this book. I heartily recommend their book to anyone with an interest in these topics.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read even if not for a class., December 8, 2007

By 

Lola "Miss L" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford Economics and Finance) (Hardcover)

This book was a assigned for a political economy class but was interesting and easy to read. I am keeping this book as it explains a lot about human behavior and had examples showing how people have always cooperated to meet their own goals.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The debate over property rights made fun!, December 16, 2006

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford Economics and Finance) (Hardcover)

This book is written by two scholars who would describe themselves as free market environmentalists. If you don't know what that is, you should probably read this book. In contrast to other tomes on such matters, it engages the topic through inherently fun examples, taken from the "Wild West" in US history.

In the first chapter, Anderson and Hill discuss various systems of property rights on the Wild West: tribal institutions, fur traders, miners in the Sierra Nevada, water rights of prior appropriation, and Cattlemen's associations.

The second chapter provides a general review of the concept of property rights and how they are designed. Anderson and Hill recognize from the start that many people use systems of property rights to benefit themselves at the expense of others. This "rent-seeking" often involves messing with the market, and harms society as a whole. In short, Anderson and Hill recognize (at least in principle) that property rights may not always be efficient in economic terms. They are fair minded, at least in principle, allowing that government, local communities, and/or entrepreneurs might each provide solutions to these problems in both theory and practice.

The next two chapters make this abstract argument concrete by looking at property rights in Indian country. Obviously, most Indian lands were taken by force or by the threat of force, an excellent example of rent-seeking by whites with tragic effects for Natives.

After this, the authors turn to a series of other property rights issues in the West, from fur traders and wagon trains to mining camps and Mormon irrigation. The core claim is that American economic successes reflect the ability of local communities to develop new institutions of property rights to solve the novel problems that they found. In contrast, when rent-seekers establish property rights that benefit them at the expense of others, bad things happen.

Given their own leanings, Anderson and Hill tend to see "good property rights leading to good outcomes" more than they see rent-seekers perverting markets and harming the environment. However, the misuse of both political and economic power is ubiquitous, and should have been acknowledged more in practice. They do recognize the bad treatment of Indians, but apparently don't find much bad behavior by whites against other whites.

The book makes some pretense of presenting an overall theory, but it really has only a framework that allows the authors to tell a bunch of interesting "just-so stories." They also do not given any attention to research design or case selection, nor do they provide a justification for telling these particular stories as opposed to others. They pose the book as providing a revisionist history, against the myth of violence on the Wild West. They're successful in telling an alternative story, but to do that, they left some things out - - most notably the railroads.

Though it's easy to read this book as part of the Right, there are elements of the argument that will provoke both sides of the political spectrum. On the one hand, the book often serves up a Pollyannish view of the glories of markets and private property that will annoy the Left. On the other hand, Anderson and Hill provide a very sympathetic view of Native American institutions, and are highly critical of how Indian land was forcefully taken and then mismanaged by whites - - issues that the Right would like to gloss over.

Those on the Right will probably like this book because of its emphasis on property rights and markets. Still, those on the Left could also read this book as a powerful indictment of corporate welfare, reflected historically in subsidized grazing and continuing to subsidized mining and oil exploration today, all of which has devastated the environment. That should give the Right pause.

In short, both sides of the debate over free markets and environmentalism could learn something from this book. But, people being the way they are, they probably won't.