"Those who appreciate the impact of history will be impressed with the selection of articles." Nebraska History

Designed for survey coursesyet in-depth enough to support intensive discussionthese seventeen classic essays traverse the history of the American West, from women's property rights in Spanish-Mexican California to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, from homesteading and mining to the Great Depression and World War II. Provocative and illuminating.

Walter Nugent has been Andrew V. Tackes Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame since 1984. His earlier books include The Tolerant Populist: Kansas Populism and Nativism, Money and American Society 1865-1880, Structures of American Social History, and Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870-1914. Forthcoming is a history of the people of the American West.

Martin Ridge, former president of the Western History Association and the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, is Senior Research Associate in the Huntington Library. He is former editor of The Journal of American History and co-author with Ray Allen Billington of Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier and America's Frontier Story: A Documentary History of Westward Expansion.

MapList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments and PermissionsTimelineGeneral Introduction by Martin RidgePart I: Defining the WestAre We Talking about a Place? What Is It? Where Is It?1. Walter Nugent, "Where is the American West?"2. Martin Ridge, "The American West: From Frontier to Region"3. Walter Nugent, "Frontiers and Empires in the Late Nineteenth Century"Part II: The Eighteenth CenturyCalifornia Women, 1769-1848 4. Gloria Ricci Lothrop, "Rancheras and the Land: Women and Property Rights in Hispanic California"Part III: The Nineteenth CenturyExploration, the Fur Trade, and National Identity, 1807-18455. William H. Goetzmann, "Mountain Man as Jacksonian Man"Indians, Animals, and the Great Plains, 1800-18506. Dan Flores, "Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850"The Mexican-American War, 1846-18487. Gene M. Brack, "Mexican Opinion, American Racism, and the War of 1846"The Latter-day Saints, 1830-18908. Martin Ridge, Mormon"'Deliverance' and the Closing of the Frontier"Indians, the Army, and Settlers, 18649. Janet LeCompte, "Sand Creek"Cowboys as Wage Workers, 1880s10. David E. Lopez, "Cowboy Strikes and Unions"Homesteading, 1880s-1930s11. Paula M. Nelson, "'Everything I Want is Here!': The Dakota Farmer's Rural Ideal, 1884-1934"Part IV: The Twentieth CenturyMexican, "Anglo", and European Miners and Capital, 1900-191512. Phil Mellinger,"'The Men Have Become Organizers': Labor Conflict and Unionization in the Mexican Mining Communities of Arizona, 1900-1915"The Great Depression in the Northwest, 1929-194113. Leonard J. Arrington,""Idaho and the Great Depression"World War II and the Metropolis, 1941-194514. Arthur C. Verge, "The Impact of the Second World War on Los Angeles"Japanese-American Women and the Internment of 1942-194515. Valerie Matsumoto, "Japanese-American Women during World War II"African-Americans in the West, 1541-199316. Quintard Taylor, "From Esteban to Rodney King: Five Centuries of African American History in the West"The Pacific Northwest since 194517. Carl Abbott, "Regional City and Network City: Portland and Seattle in the Twentieth Century"