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Americans have always been fascinated with the idea of place, especially the West, and with its collateral idea, the frontier. This course is designed as an exploration of these ideas and as an introduction to the major themes and arguments in the history of the trans-Mississippi West, the region most closely identified with “frontier.” As class participants might expect, the class is an intensive reading in which the emphasis is on interpretation rather than the recall of facts. (A scholar once remarked, “A readings course is the process of stuffing oneself on books until one is done up like a Thanksgiving turkey.”) The turkey business aside, this is an “old timey” graduate seminar, in which the emphasis is on discussion and the exchange of ideas. If you are entirely new to the history of the American West, you may wish to pick an overview. The Oxford History of the American West, Clyde Milner II, ed. and It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own, Richard White are good bets.
 Download (723.32 K) HIST 616 in RTF
Download (504.12 K) HIST 616 in PDF |
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The following books are required for the course. They are available in the Campus Bookstore.
Patricia Nelson Limerick
-- The Legacy of Conquest
Frederick Jackson Turner
-- The Frontier in American History
Bernard DeVoto, ed.
-- The Journals of Lewis and Clark
Ramon A. Gutierrez
-- When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away
William Cronon, ed.
-- Under an Open Sky
William Cronon, ed.
-- Uncommon Ground
Elliott West
-- The Way to the West
William G. Robbins
-- Colony and Empire
Richard White
-- The Middle Ground
Richard L. Bushman
-- Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
Ian Frazier
-- On the Rez
James Welch
-- Fools Crow
George J. Sanchez
-- Becoming Mexican American
Neil Foley
-- White Scourge
Gary Y. Okihiro
-- Margins and Mainstreams
Kevin Fernlund, ed.
-- The Cold War American West
Mark Reisner
-- Cadillac Desert
John Logan Allen
-- Lewis and Clark and the Image of the American Northwest |
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