Essays in this volume deal with the question of the focus of historical inquiry. Prior generations of historians concentrated upon the so-called frontier process. On the frontier, white male Anglo-Saxon pioneers confronted savagery in an east to west progression of settlement on free land. The process produced American Democracy. The present generation of historians rejects many aspects of the Frontier Thesis and asks questions about people and places. The settlement process started in the West, not the East. The settlers were multi-racial and women were players in the process. This exciting,...

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This volume presents key published articles on women in the American West. Once a peripheral focus, gender is now central to historical analysis. These essays make this critical focus manifest in the interpretation of the regions of the American West. Beyond regional implications, these authors make gender the centre of inquiry for all of American History.

Essays in this volume survey the various environmental consequences of western development. The settlement process, the industrial revolution and urbanization all had environmental consequences. Completely neglected by most previous generations of historians, our authors analyze the environmental problems in institutional, legal and cultural terms. These essays make clear the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to environmental history as science, culture and law frequently clashed in the developmental process.

The essays in this volume display the vast variety of urban experiences in the West. The authors examine the role of race, class and gender in the urbanization process and highlight many of the unique elements in western urbanization. Several of the essays portray the institutional and legal settings for this movement of peoples from the land to the villages, towns and cities of the region.

This volume presents recent thinking on the role of law in the history of the American West. The contributors have created a field of specialization and brought the issue of law into the general field. These essays aim to demonstrate how legal history can amplify our understanding of the meaning of race, class and gender in the West.

Rethinking the significance of the West in American culture, this collection summaizes the debate and brings together materials from disparate sources.