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301 books match the query 'West (U.S.)' and 5 start with l

cover of Land Hunger: Ohio and the Western Frontiers

Land Hunger

Ohio and the Western Frontiers

Mansel G. Blackford

Ohio University Press, 2025

In Land Hunger, Mansel G. Blackford explores the central role of land use in the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and Euro Americans as the new nation expanded westward from Ohio to the Oregon Country. Blackford emphasizes how people adapted to new and changed environments and focuses on key themes related to environmental and frontier studies: the land-use interactions between Native Americans and outsiders, the influence of government policies, and the impact of earlier concepts about the ownership and use of land and water that continue to affect us today in the face of climate change. The first part of the book delves into Euro American and African American settlement in the Ohio Country during the late 1700s and early 1800s. Driven by “Ohio fever” and influenced by a blend of pragmatic, romantic, and capitalistic ideals, tens of thousands crossed the Appalachian Mountains to settle and farm in an unfamiliar land. It was in Ohio and the Midwest that many Americans developed their views on land and the environment, and where the new federal government devised methods for surveying and selling claimed lands. Subsequent chapters analyze how Ohioans and others attempted to apply Midwest-born ideas and practices in the Oregon Country and the Great Plains—regions with significantly different environments—with limited success. Land Hunger defines “frontiers” as zones of interaction between distinct groups of people, offering a broad interpretation of these contested spaces. The book explores how frontiers were depicted in fiction, where their portrayal helped establish their meaning and significance to incoming Americans. Blackford examines diaries, letters, and reminiscences, as well as a broad range of scholarly studies in this historical synthesis.
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cover of Late Holocene Research on Foragers and Farmers in the Desert West

Late Holocene Research on Foragers and Farmers in the Desert West

Barbara J. Roth and Maxine E. McBrinn

University of Utah Press, 2015

This book brings together the work of archaeologists investigating prehistoric hunter-gatherers (foragers) and early farmers in both the Southwest and the Great Basin. Most previous work on this topic has been regionally specific, with researchers from each area favoring a different theoretical approach and little shared dialogue. Here the studies of archaeologists working in both the Southwest and the Great Basin are presented side by side to illustrate the similarities in environmental challenges and cultural practices of the prehistoric peoples who lived in these areas and to explore common research questions addressed by both regions.
     Three main themes link these papers: the role of the environment in shaping prehistoric behavior, flexibility in foraging and farming adaptations, and diversity in settlement strategies. Contributors cover a range of topics including the varied ways hunter-gatherers adapted to arid environments, the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and the reasons for it, the variation in early farmers across the Southwest and Great Basin, and the differing paths followed as they developed settled villages. 
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cover of Left in the West: Literature, Culture, and Progressive Politics in the American West

Left in the West

Literature, Culture, and Progressive Politics in the American West

Gioia Woods

University of Nevada Press, 2018

In this edited collection, Gioia Woods and her contributors bring together histories, biographies, close readings, and theories about the literary and cultural Left in the American West—as it is distinct from the more often-theorized literary left in major eastern metropolitan centers. Left in the West expands our understanding of what constitutes the literary left in the U.S. by including writers, artists, and movements not typically considered within the traditional context of the literary left. In doing so, it provides a new understanding of the region’s place among global and political ideologies.

From the early 19th century to the present, a remarkably complex and varied body of literary and cultural production has emerged out of progressive social movements. While the literary left in the West shared many interests with other regional expressions—labor, class, anti-fascism, and anti-imperialism, the influence of Manifest Destiny—the distinct history of settler colonialism in western territories caused western leftists to develop concerns unique to the region. 

Chapters in the volume provide an impressive range of analysis, covering artists and movements from suffragist writers to bohemian Californian photographers, from civil rights activists to popular folk musicians, from Latinx memoirists to Native American experimental writers, to name just a few.

The unique consideration of the West as a socio-political region establishes a framework for political critique that moves beyond class consequences, anti-fascism, and civil liberties, and into distinct Western concerns such as Native American sovereignty, environmental exploitation, and the legacies of settler colonialism. What emerges is a deeper understanding of the region and its unique people, places, and concerns.
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cover of Lincoln Looks West: From the Mississippi to the Pacific

Lincoln Looks West

From the Mississippi to the Pacific

Edited by Richard W. Etulain

Southern Illinois University Press, 2010

This first-ever volume to comprehensively explore President Abraham Lincoln’s ties to the American West brings together a variety of scholars and experts who offer a fascinating look at the sixteenth president’s lasting legacy in the territory beyond the Mississippi River. Editor Richard W. Etulain’s extensive introductory essay treats these western connections from Lincoln’s early reactions to Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War in the 1840s, through the 1850s, and during his presidency, providing a framework for the nine essays that follow.

Each of these essays offers compelling insight into the many facets of Lincoln’s often complex interactions with the American West. Included in this collection are a provocative examination of Lincoln’s opposition to the Mexican War; a discussion of the president’s antislavery politics as applied to the new arena of the West; new perspectives on Lincoln’s views regarding the Thirteenth Amendment and his reluctance regarding the admission of Nevada to the Union; a fresh look at the impact of the Radical Republicans on Lincoln’s patronage and appointments in the West; and discussion of Lincoln’s favorable treatment of New Mexico and Arizona, primarily Southern and Democratic areas, in an effort to garner their loyalty to the Union. Also analyzed is “The Tribe of Abraham”—Lincoln’s less-than-competent appointments in Washington Territory made on the basis of political friendship—and the ways in which Lincoln’s political friends in the Western Territories influenced his western policies. Other essays look at Lincoln’s dealings with the Mormons of Utah, who supported the president in exchange for his tolerance, and American Indians, whose relations with the government suffered as the president’s attention was consumed by the crisis of the Civil War.

In addition to these illuminating discussions, Etulain includes a detailed bibliographical essay, complete with examinations of previous interpretations and topics needing further research, as well as an extensive list of resources for more information on Lincoln's ties west of the Mississippi. Loaded with a wealth of information and fresh historical perspectives, Lincoln Looks West explores yet another intriguing dimension to this dynamic leader and to the history of the American West.

 

Contributors:

Richard W. Etulain

Michael S. Green

Robert W. Johannsen

Deren Earl Kellogg

Mark E. Neely Jr.

David A. Nichols

Earl S. Pomeroy

Larry Schweikart

Vincent G. Tegeder

Paul M. Zall

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cover of Lucky 13: Short Plays about Arizona, Nevada, and Utah

Lucky 13

Short Plays about Arizona, Nevada, and Utah

Red Shuttleworth

University of Nevada Press, 1995

The nature of the Old and New West is fully reflected through dialects, beliefs, occupations, and actions in this collection of thirteen plays with complete stage directions. Set in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah from the mid-1800s to the present day and focusing on veterans, children, prostitutes, priests, the newborn, and newly dead, these one-acts written by playwrights who know the region give voice to those who created and continue to recreate the West. This collection of contemporary plays, written out of love and concern for the region, examines as never before the western myths rooted in the national psyche. The characters battle limits, deny fate, and seek new beginnings. The plays examine symptoms, pose questions, and seek answers about the past and present West.
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