History of the American West

Catalog description

This lecture course will provide an introduction to the history of the place that we now know as the U.S. West. A vast and varied region stretching from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean, the West has both been characterized by its diversity and bound together by a shared regional identity and history. Beginning with the eve of European expansion in the 17th century, but concentrating on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course will focus on the historical processes that have defined the West and its place within the United States. Debates over access to land, natural resource management, federal power, racial and ethnic diversity, and the public good are central to western history. Using films, monographs, memoirs, letters, and articles, we will explore the struggles for land, resources, identity, and power which have characterized the West and its role in the nation, as well as the relationship between the western past and the myths and stories that have secured the region’s prominent place in the American imagination.