Customer Reviews

Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In true "new west" fasion, Dr. Limerick uncovers and more important contextualizes some rather uncomfortable but necessary information about darker moments in the history of the West. However Limerick also moves beyond that paradigm and wittily "reads" why we read certain aspects of history the way that we do. The book definately made me think about how I view the West, both historically and in present time. I found the insistent cateloging a bit overdone, but much of the book is laugh out loud funny. If you are used to reading dull academic prose, this is a wonderful breath of Colorado-fresh air (a little dry, a little hot, but resusitating nonetheless). Best of all, she includes three addendum pieces, one of which offers some succinct and much needed advice on writing readable prose. The other, "Dancing with Professors" a sly little piece she wrote for a mass audience on why professors act the way that they do, is worth the book itself.

SOMETHING IN THE SOIL is a collection of essays relating to the "history of the New West" (or "the new history of the West") with which Limerick is associated. Some of the essays are recycled, and some were not previously published. Limerick tries to impose some order by grouping them in five Parts, but still the book has a mildly disjointed feel, though Limerick's distinctive style and voice provides some unity.

What Limerick brings to the table is a willingness to reconsider and examine anew many issues, including many myths, associated with the American West, and to discuss them clearly and cogently. Although the book was published eight years ago (and several of the essays originally published longer ago than that), the essays are still sufficiently relevant to warrant reading them. And the reading will be much easier and enjoyable than is the case with the work of most university historians. Limerick makes it a point to avoid academic jargon and tortured syntax (indeed, one of the essays addresses the problems seemingly endemic to academic writing), and she has achieved a distinctive voice, rather informal and casual, yet honest and sincere.

She also is to be commended for re-thinking and, where she finds it appropriate, revising her earlier work, including "The Legacy of Conquest," which was published in 1987 and elevated Limerick to the front rank of "New West" historians. Occasionally, her points or arguments strike me as a little far-fetched or over-the-top, but at least she is lively and provocative.

Limerick made a huge mark on the study of the American west with her "Legacy of Conquest" so I'll read anything with her name on it. This book is a compilation of speeches and essays, which she has tried to group together thematically. Each essay on its own is interesting, but as a group, they don't work. Each piece was written for a different audience - an environmental group, a commemorative book, historians. It feels rather disjointed. Also, she is often speaking to people with some background knowledge of her subject matter, so she does not always explain references to books, authors, events. I think if someone was looking for an introduction to Western history, this would be one of those works you would read after having read other works. For the new-comer, Legacy of Conquest is a much better introduction.

This book is passionate but eminently fair--a rare combination these days. Whatever your views of cowboys, Indians, gold miners, the U.S.Army, Mexican-Americans, Mormons, Californians, etc. may be, I guarantee you will think differently about ALL of them and more if you read this book. I earnestly hope Ms. Limerick will write such a book about the nation as a whole: we need it.

Remember those Old West "dime novels" you heard about in high school, the ones where every Indian was a bloodthirsty savage and every white person was an innocent saint? OK, reverse that description and you pretty much have Patricia Nelson Limerick's over-arching theme for everything she writes and everything she says. In her view, the history of the American West is mostly a tale of atrocities committed by white people (especially white males), against everyone else, including white females, but especially Indians, Mexicans, blacks, Chinese, Japanese, and even Hindus. This would be fine, except that, unlike the dime novels, which were fiction, Limerick claims to write history. No way. What this (along with its predecessor, Legacy of Conquest) is, is multi-culturalist, anti-white propaganda masquerading as fact. Unfortunately, Limerick and her allies - members of the radical left student movement in American colleges from the late 1960's through early 1970's - remained in academia rather than take real jobs and have now taken over the western studies programs at most American colleges and universities. In a way her books are a hangover from the intellectual melt-down of that era, and it's clear that Limerick has many hang-ups, about men, about being white, etc.

I give this book two stars, despite the author's obvious bias, because she does restore to historical memory some forgotten figures from minority groups, and does write well enough to hold the reader's interest. Writing more "inclusive" history, as she and her cohorts brag about, is a good thing, but it's only a minor part of their agenda. The main goal of the so-called "New West revisionist historians" is to destroy the idea that the American conquest and settlement of the West was a glorious thing, despite its crimes, injustices, and tragedies (which earlier, better historians have long noted), and to make it instead a horror, something to be ashamed of, to bewail, and (for whites, at least) to make amends for, forever and ever.

But to do that requires distorting or ignoring too many facts. While the end product might contain some interesting sketches of previously ignored people or incidents, it's not really history--it's a kind of semi-historical agitprop.

For those interested in a real history of the West, I have to recommend (sorry, Dr. Limerick!) the works of a "Dead White Male." In the late 1940's and early '50's, Bernard De Voto wrote a magnificent trilogy about the West: The Course of Empire, Across the Wide Missouri, and Year of Decision. They have stood the test of time. Patricia Nelson Limerick's works will not.