The American West: A New Interpretive History

That book is great! It is one of the only history books that i find interesting! I recomend in to everyone that thinks history is boring because its not.

I thought this book was an excellent introduction to the American West. It is well laid out and definitely is a book worthy of a purchase.

This is an excellent brief overview of the history of the American West. I find I wanted to get into this history having traveled a bit in the West in recent years and was not ready to tackle the author's full history (which I'll do later) and I was not quite ready to read De Voto's 3 volumes. Frontiers served its purpose: I have now read one of De Voto's books and am into a second one. The illustrations in Frontiers and the suggested readings list are both very helpful.

On its own terms, this book is a huge success.It synthesizes the past 30 years of serious historical research which revolutionized the presentation of the history of the American West by rescuing the experiences of groups who had been relatively ignored by standard interpretations. Indians, women, blacks, Latinos, Asians, workers are dealt with at length and with sympathy.The research of anti-capitalist/neo-Marxist, anti-imperialist and pro-environmental historians is summarized and we can see the importance of the challenges they raise to old style historians.The range of topics is impressive, and the writing is lively and intelligent. (I'd say this is suitable for the college junior/senior level.) The bibliography is amazingly up to date.The reason why I don't give it a 5 is its lack of balance. At times the authors editorialize crudely--with dismissive judgements ("nonsense") and exclamation points galore to show us when we should boo or hiss.Less empowered (victim) groups are too often treated as noble, and the majority as vile. This is the Achilles heel of a generation of historians who went into this field with strong orientations and sympathies. But even more than the distaste for the majority groups, the biggest drawback is the relative lack of attention paid to them. I'm not saying, in an old fashioned way, that they should extol the "achievement" or mindlessly glorify the "Anglos" or capitalists. There is too much solid evidence here that the achievements were not 100% beneficial and that the white males could act and think in apalling ways. But they were the majority actors and this book can too often lose sight of that. At times it feels like the center is missing.Still, it's an impressive, thought-provoking book. (The section on attempts by cowboys to unionize should be treasured by anybody who was ever spoon fed the Turner thesis.) But it probably should be the second book to give a neophyte, not the first.

This new interpretive history of the American west is recommended reading for college-level students of American history. Drawings, posters, photos and illustrations pepper what remains a panoramic view of history and characters which succeeds in documenting some of the major trends and personalities of the West. Highly recommended.