Reopening the American West

Reopening the American West
Author: Hal K. Rothman
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0816536848

Take a good look at the American West and you'll see that the frontier is undergoing constant changes—not only changes made to the land but also changes in attitudes about the land held by the people who live there. In this book Mike Davis, Stephen Pyne, William deBuys, Donald Worster, Dan Flores, and others re-examine the relationship between people and the environment in the American West over five hundred years, from the legacy of Coronado's search for the Cities of Gold to the social costs of tourism and gaming inflicted by modern adventurers. By exploring places in the West, aspects of the region's past, and ways of understanding some of its pressing issues, the authors foster a better understanding of how people interact and perceive land. Reopening the American West takes a fresh approach to the history of the region, examining the premises of earlier scholars as well as those who have redefined the study of the West over the past two decades. It combines provocative essays with insightful analyses to address issues that are representative of the West in the twentieth century—multiculturalism, water issues, resource exploitation—and to reopen the West for all readers interested in new ways of looking at its wide-open spaces. Contents: Places Dreams of Earth, William deBuys Environmentalism and Multiculturalism, Dan L. Flores Pyre on the Mountain, Stephen J. Pyne Las Vegas Versus Nature, Mike Davis Pasts The Legacy of John Wesley Powell, Donald Worster Pokey’s Paradox: Tourism and Transformation on the Western Navajo Reservation, Hal K. Rothman Negotiating National Identity: Western Tourism and "See American First," Marguerite Schaffer Understanding Place Humanists at the Headgates, Helen Ingram Tapping the Rockies: Resource Exploitation and Conservation in the Intermountain West, Char Miller The Meaning of Place: Reimagining Community in a Changing West, Robert Gottlieb

Reopening the Frontier

Reopening the Frontier
Author: Brian Q. Cannon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN:

The first ever history of the post-World War II homesteading program that provided frontier land to returning veterans. Reveals the many challenges they faced--and how they helped change our perceptions of the modern American West.

Reopening America and the World

Reopening America and the World
Author: John R. Allen
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0815738749

The coronavirus has imposed a heavy toll on people’s lives, livelihoods, and connections with one another. As America and the world reopen from this devastating pandemic, we need to examine how the process is taking place, its impact on individual lives and livelihoods, and learn from the experiences of other nations. In this book, we look at the experiences of the United States and other countries to see what we can derive about the reopening and its economic, social, and policy impacts. We present the insights and observations of Brookings scholars who offer their thoughts and recommendations for future action. Our goals are to inform the public conversation about Covid-19, help business, government, and civic leaders take their next steps, and think about the immediate and longer-term consequences of the virus.

The Perry Expedition and the "Opening of Japan to the West," 1853–1873

The Perry Expedition and the
Author: Paul Hendrix Clark
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2020-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1624668909

By the time U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's squadron of four ships sailed into Tokyo Bay on July 8, 1853, the Japanese Tokugawa government had already fended off similarly unwelcome intrusions by the French, the Russians, the Dutch, and the British. These Western imperialists had the power and the means to force Japan into the kinds of treaties that would effectively spell the end of Japan’s autonomy, maybe even its existence as an independent country. At the same moment, Japan was also grappling with a serious insurrection, the death of an emperor, and the death of a shogun—as well as with a series of natural disasters and associated famines. The Japanese response to this incredible series of catastrophes would permanently alter the balance of geopolitical power around the world. Drawing on the best recent scholarship, this short introductory volume examines the motivations and maneuvers of the major participants in the conflict and sets the "opening" of Japan in the context of broader global history. Selections from twenty-​nine primary sources provide firsthand accounts of the event from a variety of perspectives. Several illustrations are also included, along with a note on historiographic interpretation.

New Geographies of the American West

New Geographies of the American West
Author: William Riebsame Travis
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2007-05-11
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1597266140

Reconciling explosive growth with often majestic landscape defines New Geographies of the American West. Geographer William Travis examines contemporary land use changes and development patterns from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and assesses the ecological and social outcomes of Western development. Unlike previous "boom" periods dependent on oil or gold, the modern population explosion in the West reflects a sustained passion for living in this specific landscape. But the encroaching exurbs, ranchettes, and ski resorts are slicing away at the very environment that Westerners cherish. Efforts to manage growth in the West are usually stymied at the state and local levels. Is it possible to improve development patterns within the West's traditional anti-planning, pro-growth milieu, or is a new model needed? Can the region develop sustainably, protecting and managing its defining wildness, while benefiting from it, too? Travis takes up the challenge , suggesting that functional and attractive settlement can be embedded in preserved lands, working landscapes, and healthy ecologies.

Failure to Adjust

Failure to Adjust
Author: Edward Alden
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2017-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1538109093

*Updated edition with a new foreword on the Trump administration's trade policy* The vast benefits promised by the supporters of globalization, and by their own government, have never materialized for many Americans. In Failure to Adjust Edward Alden provides a compelling history of the last four decades of US economic and trade policies that have left too many Americans unable to adapt to or compete in the current global marketplace. He tells the story of what went wrong and how to correct the course. Originally published on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Alden’s book captured the zeitgeist that would propel Donald J. Trump to the presidency. In a new introduction to the paperback edition, Alden addresses the economic challenges now facing the Trump administration, and warns that economic disruption will continue to be among the most pressing issues facing the United States. If the failure to adjust continues, Alden predicts, the political disruptions of the future will be larger still.

America's West

America's West
Author: David M. Wrobel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2017-10-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521192013

This book examines the regional history of the American West in relation to the rest of the United States, emphasizing cultural and political history.

Chronology of the American West

Chronology of the American West
Author: Scott C. Zeman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2002-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1576077608

This four-part chronology presents the unfolding of the American West from 23,000 B.C.E. to A.D. 2001 Not long ago, the story of the American West was an uncomplicated tale. Its theme was "The Winning of the West," and its plot simply followed Euro-Americans as they galloped across the continent. But throughout the last two decades, historians like Scott C. Zeman have begun to examine the story and separate the myths from the facts. Today the history of the American West is about the land itself; about conquest and colonization; about migration and social change. Its heroes are not only white men, but also women and children, and peoples of African, Asian, Native American, and European descent. In this up to date chronology, readers can explore hundreds of political, social, and cultural plot points, from the arrival of the continent's first migrants more than 20,000 years ago to the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, and from the completion of the trans-Alaska pipeline in 1977 to the shootings at Columbine High School in 2000.

A Misplaced Massacre

A Misplaced Massacre
Author: Ari Kelman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2013-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674071034

In the early morning of November 29, 1864, with the fate of the Union still uncertain, part of the First Colorado and nearly all of the Third Colorado volunteer regiments, commanded by Colonel John Chivington, surprised hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped on the banks of Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado Territory. More than 150 Native Americans were slaughtered, the vast majority of them women, children, and the elderly, making it one of the most infamous cases of state-sponsored violence in U.S. history. A Misplaced Massacre examines the ways in which generations of Americans have struggled to come to terms with the meaning of both the attack and its aftermath, most publicly at the 2007 opening of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. This site opened after a long and remarkably contentious planning process. Native Americans, Colorado ranchers, scholars, Park Service employees, and politicians alternately argued and allied with one another around the question of whether the nation’s crimes, as well as its achievements, should be memorialized. Ari Kelman unearths the stories of those who lived through the atrocity, as well as those who grappled with its troubling legacy, to reveal how the intertwined histories of the conquest and colonization of the American West and the U.S. Civil War left enduring national scars. Combining painstaking research with storytelling worthy of a novel, A Misplaced Massacre probes the intersection of history and memory, laying bare the ways differing groups of Americans come to know a shared past.

Devil's Bargains

Devil's Bargains
Author: Hal Rothman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The West is popularly perceived as America's last outpost of unfettered opportunity, but twentieth-century corporate tourism has transformed it into America's "land of opportunism." From Sun Valley to Santa Fe, towns throughout the West have been turned over to outsiders—and not just to those who visit and move on, but to those who stay and control. Although tourism has been a blessing for many, bringing economic and cultural prosperity to communities without obvious means of support or allowing towns on the brink of extinction to renew themselves; the costs on more intangible levels may be said to outweigh the benefits and be a devil's bargain in the making. Hal Rothman examines the effect of twentieth-century tourism on the West and exposes that industry's darker side. He tells how tourism evolved from Grand Canyon rail trips to Sun Valley ski weekends and Disneyland vacations, and how the post-World War II boom in air travel and luxury hotels capitalized on a surge in discretionary income for many Americans, combined with newfound leisure time. From major destinations like Las Vegas to revitalized towns like Aspen and Moab, Rothman reveals how the introduction of tourism into a community may seem innocuous, but residents gradually realize, as they seek to preserve the authenticity of their communities, that decision-making power has subtly shifted from the community itself to the newly arrived corporate financiers. And because tourism often results in a redistribution of wealth and power to "outsiders," observes Rothman, it represents a new form of colonialism for the region. By depicting the nature of tourism in the American West through true stories of places and individuals that have felt its grasp, Rothman doesn't just document the effects of tourism but provides us with an enlightened explanation of the shape these changes take. Deftly balancing historical perspective with an eye for what's happening in the region right now, his book sets new standards for the study of tourism and is one that no citizen of the West whose life is touched by that industry can afford to ignore.