Dave's Western History

2005-12-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

See my comment on Jim at http://hist616forjimjohnsonlm.blogspot.com/2005/12/history-616-devils-bargains.html

2005-12-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

See my comment on Dan at http://dangifford.blogspot.com/2005/12/week-14blog-14.html

Devil's Bargains December 5 Class

2005-12-03T08:44:00.000-08:00

In Devil's Bargains, Hal K. Rothman analyzes the origins and growth of tourism in the West. He describes how the economic benefits it brought to remote areas withering after the demise of mining operations were offset by its destructive impact on the local community. Tourism transformed communities, bringing economic growth while significantly altering the culture and social stucture. As Rothman says, "[I]t altered the meaning of local life, the very soul of the places it touched." (p. 370) The tradeoff of economic growth for loss of local power and cultural identity constituted a "devil's bargain."

Rothman traces the development of Western tourism through four different but overlapping periods. The first period, which he describes as hegemonic tourism, was class-based and characterized by wealthy people who had the means and leisure time to travel by rail to view the spectacular Western landscape in places such as the Grand Canyon. The second period was characterized by the development of dude ranches and archeological digs where tourists experienced the physical aspects of the West. In the third period the invention of ski resorts transformed a local means of transportation into a national recreational industry. The fourth period encompassed the growth of gambling and theme parks as new forms of entertainment tourism.

Throughout these overlapping periods three basic types of tourism evolved along with the growth of mass transportation, first by rail, then by automobile, and finally by jet plane. Rothman calls the first type "heritage or cultural tourism," characterized by "the marketing of the historic, scenic, and mythic past." (p. 23) This form was the class-based hegemonic tourism of the wealthy early rail travelers. The second type, recreational tourism, evolved as better transportation systems (the automobile) and easier access allowed development of dude ranches, resorts, and other recreational destinations. These tourists went to the West not to view it as a place of mythical prehistory but to experience it as a unique recreational environment. The third type of tourism arose from the development of a support infrastructure for travel, including improved roads, tourist camps, and motor courts, which allowed a wider range of people to participate. Rothman calls this form "entertainment tourism," which he believes eventually encompassed heritage and recreational tourism, as the tourism experience conflated the artificial reality of national parks with the packaged unreality of theme parks, resorts, reconstructions like Santa Fe, and the ultimate unreality of Las Vegas.

Tourism gradually emerged as the replacement for the lost mineral extraction industries and brought wealth and prosperity to many moribund communities. However, these communities paid a steep price for this prosperity in a series of "devil's bargains." The lack of indigenous capital meant loss of control to outsiders and eventual corporate domination, making these areas virtual colonies. The unequal allocation of economic benefits frayed community bonds and pitted those who profited from change against those left behind. Tourists themselves brought change as locals responded to their preconceived notions of what the Western experience should be. Instead of being themselves, locals became the characters who the visiting tourists wanted them to be, and the communities "evolved into caricatures of their original identities." (p. 370) Tourism brought success, but it transformed authentic places into artificial portrayals of a mythical past that never existed. As the experience was replicated in multiple locales, the local influence succumbed to the standardization of mass merchandizing represented by national chain stores and restaurants. Tourism destroyed the old myths as it created new myths in reponse to the demands of tourists in a self-reinforcing cycle of democratization and homogenization.

I found the book a hard and tedious read in places and over long, but it filled an important niche in our study of the West. Looking at the West through the lens of a tourist provides new insight into concepts of the West as place, experience, and process. The West of today bears little resemblance to the mythical Turnerian frontier peopled by pioneering yeoman farmers carrying out the nation's manifest destiny. Instead, Rothman portrays a region built on the artificial foundation of a reconstructed mythical reality that exists only in the minds of tourists seeking to experience that myth. In short, the West of today is as mythical as ever.

2005-11-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

See my Comment on Ben at http://huggins616.blogspot.com/2005/11/posting-12-federal-water-project-west.html

Cadillac Desert November 28 Class

2005-11-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner describes how the development of the West was driven by the availability of water. Competition among the western states to exploit and appropriate sources of water transformed the West while causing severe environmental and economic damage in many areas. The rivalry between the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation resulted in the construction of hundreds of dams and reservoirs destroying huge areas of native habitat throughout the West at great economic cost.

Reisner argues convincingly that most of the West, except for brief intervals of above normal rainfall in some areas, has always been a semi desert not meant to support a society based on agriculture. Promoters of the West saw irrigation as the answer. The invention of the centrifugal pump made it possible to tap the vast bodies of water in underground aquifers, the result of eons of ice age melts. At the same time a massive program of building huge dams and reservoirs was undertaken with devastating consequences for the environment accompanied often by little economic benefit except to a small number of wealthy farmers.

Reisner foresees a day of reckoning for the West when the cost of water becomes prohibitive and the effects of excessive irrigation destroy the productivity of the land. A combination of these factors will cause a good portion of the West to revert to desert conditions. Pumping of ground water far in excess of its replenishment through rainfall will eventually deplete the aquifers. While river water is constantly renewed through rainfall and snowmelt, it is not sufficient to meet demand. As water is diverted and transported long distances, over and through mountain ranges, the cost increases exponentially. Siltation of the reservoirs will eventually clog the dams and cause major backups on the rivers.

As Reisner describes it, the politics of water creates an irresistible and self-perpetuating cycle of more and bigger water projects that are built regardless of cost or benefits. Construction of a dam with Federal (taxpayer) money is a win/win proposition for any politician since it creates jobs for construction companies, suppliers, and other businesses at no apparent cost to the local population. At the same time it makes some people rich who respond with generous campaign contributions. Reisner shows how even the most socially and environmentally sensitive politician soon gives in to the overwhelming pressure.

I found the book both informative and disturbing. Reisner paints a bleak picture. It is hard not to feel anger and resentment for the insensitive politicians, greedy farmers, and arrogant bureaucrats of the Corps and Bureau, who destroy the environment, force Indians off their land, and incur costs of billions of dollars. However, I think Reisner may go a little too far in condemning most if not all water projects as unmitigated disasters. Clearly, many dam projects, particularly early ones like Hoover, had significant economic benefits. Many projects controlled rampaging rivers to eliminate destructive floods. Others brought cheap electric power to poor rural areas. Reisner does concede that World War II might have been lost without the power generated by Grand Coulee and Bonneville Dams, though he points out that this was a totally unforeseen consequence. In short, I believe the book would be better if it presented a somewhat more balanced view.

I also found the book lacking in historical background. There is no discussion of how Native Americans survived and thrived in the arid climate. Aside from decrying the loss of Indian land through flooding to create reservoirs and the loss of salmon fisheries, there is no discussion of the cultural and social effects of the water projects. These deficiencies may be attributed to the fact that Reisner is an author and journalist and not a historian . It’s more a commentary on destructive politics than a history of westward expansion. Nonetheless, it makes a contribution to the historiography of the era.

Roy Baker Project November 21 Class

2005-11-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

As I indicated in my comment on Ray's blog in response to Audrey's comment, I am quite frustrated by this project, which I think is out of control. We have only three weeks till the paper is due, but we are amassing a mountain of information to be digested and incorporated in the final paper. Who has time to explore all the articles, documents, books, etc, that are being listed? At the same time, we still have two long books and several articles to read and write blogs about.
I think we need to have this assignment narrowed and abbreviated. The paper has gone from 10 pages to 16 pages with no limit on resources to be used. Everyone wants to do well, but it now appears that only those who have spent literally days researching stuff can do well. I have spent many hours on the internet looking at all sorts of things. I have also been to the Library of Congress twice, and I am going again this afternoon. However, I am not coming up with nearly the results that others are, so I'm feeling like a slug.
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2005-11-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

See my response to Audrey's concerns in comment on Ray at http://roybakerarchive.blogspot.com/2005/11/ray-swiders-20-nov-blog.html

2005-11-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

See my comment on Rick at http://gaulthist616.blogspot.com/2005/11/post-10-14nov-class.html

Becoming Mexican American & Indians in Unexpected Places November 14 Class

2005-11-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

In Becoming Mexican American, George Sanchez explores the process of adaptation and acculturation among Mexican Americans (Chicanos) in Los Angeles from 1910 to 1945. In the beginning of the twentieth century, a massive migration of Mexicans across the US border began in response to the need for cheap labor in the American Southwest. Many of the new immigrants came to Los Angeles where they formed an isolated community. There were few opportunities for economic or social advancement or social integration into American society. As Sanchez points out, Californians viewed Mexican culture as inferior but malleable, requiring an intense educational effort to make it adapt to modern American society. However, “Mexican immigrants generated their own version of Americanism without abandoning Mexican culture.” (p. 107) Nevertheless, Sanchez shows that by 1945 many Mexicans had found their own middle ground and succeeded in transitioning culturally to a new Mexican-American identity.

The second and most interesting part of the book, “Divided Loyalties,” describes the process of Americanization pushed by reformers to encourage assimilation. Americanization programs sought to encourage Mexicans to abandon their “inferior” culture as part of joining American society, but clearly nothing more than second class citizenship could be attained. With the onset of the Depression in the 1930’s, Americanization efforts were abandoned and replaced by repatriation, an effort to send immigrants back to Mexico.

Sanchez discusses the great diversity among Mexican immigrant families in contrast to the rigid patriarchal and hierarchical structure assumed by earlier historians. Flexibility within family patterns developed in the process of cultural adaptation. Rigid gender roles could not be maintained, as women became wage earners. Nevertheless, strong family networks were a positive factor for Mexicans struggling in a hostile environment.

Sanchez explores religious practices, musical entertainment preferences, work experiences, and consumption patterns to illuminate further the evolving process of adaptation of Mexican culture. A crucial development in the formation of the Mexican American identity was the mass deportation and repatriation during the Depression, which reduced the Los Angeles Mexican community by one third and disrupted its cultural life. Remaining Mexicans became involved in political activity in an attempt to integrate themselves into American society.

Indians in Unexpected Places by Philip J. Deloria contrasts the stereotypical expectations of Indians in popular American culture at the turn of the twentieth century with the actual achievements of Indians in various fields. Indians show up in “unexpected places” doing unexpected things, such as performing as athletes, singing opera, acting in movies, driving cars, and getting their hair done. Deloria states that at the beginning of the twentieth century, “. . . {A}ccording to most American narratives, Indian peoples, corralled on isolated and impoverished reservations, missed out on modernity – indeed, almost dropped out of history itself.” (P. 6) He argues that contrary to that conception Indians in large numbers did engage in modernization and that their activities were not as anomalous as supposed.

The book pursues the “secret” histories of turn-of-the-century Indian life in which Indians drove cars, played football, performed as musicians, acted in movies, and portrayed themselves in Wild West shows. Pictures like that of Geronimo driving a car or Red Cloud Woman in a beauty parlor illustrate the jarring effect of seeing an Indian in an unexpected place, while at the same time they vividly demonstrate Indian participation in a shared modern culture. These images contradict the myth of Indian disappearance and cultural irrelevance.

Taken together, these two books advance our analysis of how different peoples played significant roles in the history of the West. Contrary to the myth of the “vanishing race,” Indians survived and adapted to the point where now they control resources and command political respect. Mexicans in Los Angeles also adapted and formed their own identity as Mexican Americans. In both cases peoples with supposedly inferior cultures manage to preserve their cultural identity while becoming an integral part of American society. Defying the twin myths of inferior cultures and America as the great "melting pot," Mexicans and Indians have preserved and adapted their cultural traditions to maintain a unique identity while taking their place as Americans in a multicultural society.

2005-11-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

See my comment on Steve at http://westwardmovement.blogspot.com/2005/11/post-9-snapshots-of-past-reading-print.html

2005-11-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

See my comment on Dan at http://dangifford.blogspot.com/2005/11/week-10post-10.html

Print the Legend November 7 Class

2005-11-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

In Print the Legend Martha Sandweiss gives a new dimension to the history of the American West by viewing it through the lens of a photographer. Photographs both created and responded to national visions of the West, as photographers portrayed what they thought viewers wanted to see as much as they portrayed accurate reality. Pictures of the West confirmed the American vision of a fabulous untamed land of opportunity. Photographs were designed for widespread consumption and were usually made with the object of appealing to a prospective buyer. The influence of the marketplace meant that photos could not be taken at face value but must, as Sandweiss says, “be understood as constructions of the human imagination, as the result of selective attention to a particular subject.” (pp. 7-8)

Photographers followed the troops in the Mexican War, but their daguerreotypes did not capture the public’s imagination by creating images that evoked nationalistic and patriotic feelings in the way that paintings and transparencies did. Sandweiss uses as an example a comparison of a monochromatic photograph of Henry Clay, Jr.’s gravesite with a dramatic painting of him dying heroically in battle. Photographs competed with moving panoramas, giant painted scrolls, portraying travel on the Mississippi River, overland travel to the West, and scenes of San Francisco. These were much more exciting than the static representations of photographs.

As the technology advanced, so did the ability of photographers to use their imagination in creating more dramatic portrayals of scenes and events. The introduction of accompanying textual comments gave the photographs interpretive substance and made it possible to “print the legend.” Sandweiss’ chapter on the American Indian vividly illustrates the dramatic impact of photography on historical perception. Indians were depicted as the “vanishing race,” reinforcing the popular image of a subjugated people that had gone the way of the buffalo and the pristine wilderness. Over time the interpretation of Indian photographs changed. As Sandweiss points out, what purported to be photographic documentation of the inevitable end of distinctive tribal ways came to be viewed by contemporary Native Americans as evidence of cultural vitality in a vibrant society. This shows that, as with beauty, the meaning of a picture is in the eye of the beholder.

This was a great book, tracing the history of photography and its impact on Western history. Sandweiss shows how photographers influenced Western history while at the same time their work was affected by the mythical triumphalist version of that history. Their pictures of the West were tinged with nostalgia for the unspoiled Eden of their imagination. At the same time the relentless reality of their photographs could not compete for the public’s attention with the dramatic artistic representations by other media that appealed more to the public’s imagination.

2005-10-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

See my comment on Audrey at http://ahaugan616.blogspot.com/2005/10/blog-9-women-and-gender.html

2005-10-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

See my Comment on Dan at http://dangifford.blogspot.com/2005/10/week-9post-9.html

Woman And Gender in the American West October 31 Class

2005-10-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

Women and Gender in the American West is a collection of essays that foreground the history of western women and show the complexity and diversity of their experiences and the importance of their roles. In contrast to the traditional male-dominated western history, these essays view that history from the viewpoint of women and examine issues of race, gender, power, and cross-cultural impacts of various combinations of male-female relationships. All of the authors challenge the construction of a masculine west and mourn the fact that, in Susan Lee Johnson’s words, “the discursive apparatus of white masculinity has not been dismantled.”

The essays are varied and wide-ranging. They demonstrate that when the relevant history is viewed through the lens of women, conceptions of race, gender, culture, and power are transformed and made more complex. The agency of women is shown to be a powerful force in western development, even as it took different forms in different situations. For example, Mormon wives in plural marriages, who had previously been portrayed as victims of a system of female bondage, are shown to have had protection under Utah’s domestic relations laws that allowed divorce liberally.

Susan Lee Johnson argues that the west is a place of “disrupted gender relations, “ which must be studied in order to understand its history. Throughout the west attempts by indigenous women to manage their sexuality were resisted by white males who considered them sexual objects Interracial marriage was a source of disruption in gender relations. Miscegenation laws attempted to control women’s sexuality while granting leeway to men. When a European married an Indian woman, she was a “noble princess,” but when a white man simply wanted to use such a woman, she was a “savage squaw.’ For Spanish-Mexican women the dichotomy was Spanish senorita/Mexican prostitute. In the colonial era marriage between Native American men and white women was a threatening relationship violating the racial and patriarchal order. A white man marrying an Indian woman was not viewed as threatening to society, but a white woman marrying a “savage’ upset the natural racial order and predominant view of gender relations.

Some of the essays provide examples of women asserting their influence in various ways. Women organized benevolence societies in San Francisco, which filled real needs while at the same time enabling them to exercise social and political power. While maintaining the façade of “separate spheres,’ these women blurred the public/private sphere distinction and expanded their role and influence. Another example of women operating outside their "sphere" is provided in a dramatic courtroom battle in San Francisco where a wealthy African American woman comes to the aid of an Irish American woman and takes on a powerful adversary. Much of the trial is devoted to competing characterizations of the two females, either as madam and prostitute or as virtuous women. Observers found it difficult to comprehend a woman deviating from the cultural norms as being virtuous.

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2005-10-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

See my comment on Dan at http://dangifford.blogspot.com/2005/10/week-8post-8.ht

Colony & Empire October 24 Class

2005-10-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

Colony & Empire, by William G. Robbins, is a collection of essays on the capitalist transformation of the American West. In his view, ". . . capitalism provides structure, coherent organization, and a unifying theme for discussing change in the American West during the last two centuries." (p. xii) Robbins argues that the story of the development of the West is about how it became integrated into a global economic system during a time of world-wide expansion of corporate capitalism. Hampered by the lack of indigenous capital but blessed with an abundance of natural resources, the West provided an ideal environment for the exploitive capitalist system.

Robbins breaks sharply from the lingering theory of western triumphal exceptionalism that finds high principle and a grand design in the westward movement. At the same time he takes issue with authors of "the innovative social and environmental histories of recent years," who he finds have overlooked the centrality of the issues of power and political relationships in the world of capitalism. He proceeds to analyze the application of capitalist practices to the West and their revolutionary effects on western society.

Robbins is definitely not an apologist for capitalism. He describes its corrosive and destructive impacts on western society as market forces concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few individuals and corporate organizations while impoverishing small landowners and laborers and damaging the environment. He traces the role of the railroads in opening up the territory and promoting the extractive industries. Mining and lumbering are prime examples of the damaging exploitation of capitalism, which destroys even as it creates in a repetitive cycle of expansion, accumulation, and depression. Eastern and European capitalists controlled the process leaving westerners dependent on outsiders and vulnerable to external forces and events in remote places.

This books fills some gaps in our reading by expanding analysis of the economic forces driving the western experience. The story of the capitalist impact on the environment fits well with Patricia Limerick's theme of "conquest." While she did not use the term "capitalism," she described the story of the west as a "contest for propperty and profit." Robbins' accounts of the mining industry experience presents a sharp contrast between the mining barons of industry and the miners of Roaring Camp. Robbins emphasizes the prominent individual capitalists who made their mark on the west, while Susan Johnson writes history from the bottom up, focussing on the ordinary people in mining camp society. Those miners, of course, were driven by the profit motive and thus were capitalists themselves.

2005-10-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

See my comment on Brian at http://lakota10.blogspot.com/2005/10/post-six-way-to-west.html

2005-10-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

See my comment on Audrey at http://ahaugan616.blogspot.com/2005/10/blog-7-way-to-west.html

The Way to the West October 17 Class

2005-10-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

Elliott West's The Way to the West is a collection of four essays telling the story of the Cental Plains (parts of present-day Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming) from the perspectives of land, animals, families, and stories. He portrays the west as a blurred, ambiguous web of constantly changing and evolving connections among peoples, plants, animals, land, weather, and social and political institutions.

In his essay on Land, West describes the interaction of people and the environmental settings in which they pursued their goals. The movement onto the plains by migrating Indians who maintained large herds of horses followed by white emigrants and their animals had a devastating impact on the environment as both groups competed for resources and overwhelmed the favored micro-environments along waterways. The Colorado gold rush of 1858 brought more traffic, trading posts, and soldiers. Competition for resources led to the Indian wars, as the Indians had no choice but to fight for their survival.
West's essay on Animals refutes the popular conception that the demise of the buffalo was primarily due to being pushed westward by the hordes of settlers and being over hunted by them along with professional hunters, sportsmen, and railroad construction crews. Instead, West argues that the Indians were partly to blame , as they increased their hunting to obtain buffalo products to trade. In addition, diseases carried by the overlanders' animals killed many bison, and the loss of forage to those animals also had an impact.

In discussing Families West describes how the family institution adapted to the new and changing world of the plains, even as it shaped its physical and social environment. The family functioned as a reproductive force, an economic unit, a cultivator of cultural values, a relationship of power, and a social mechanism. He contrasts Indian and white family relationships and particularly the changing role of women on the frontier. He compares the huge decline in the Indian population caused by diseases and loss of environmental resources with the low mortality and high fertility of white emigrants.

His fourth essay on Stories tells of how the popular stories of the west both simplify and distort its reality by imposing a mythical framework of understanding based on the unspoiled wilderness concept. Emigrants looked on the west as different and sought to transform it. At the same time they looked on the west as a pristine Eden and sought to preserve it. These opposing concepts both ignored the Indians who were deemed to have no place in a west that was wild and empty and had no past. National parks, seeking to restore and preserve the "wilderness" perpetuate the idea of an unoccupied land even as they are located on lands from which the Indians were driven.

These essays really drive home the jarring contrast between the reality of the western experience with the myth of heroic pioneers braving the hardships of the frontier to fulfill America's manifest destiny. They also reiterate the sad story of the Indian experience and the elision of its reality from the western myth.

2005-10-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

See my comment on audrey at http://ahaugan616.blogspot.com/2005/10/blog-6-roy-baker-et-al.html

2005-10-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

See my comments on Ben's Blog at http://huggins616.blogspot.com/2005/10/posting-5-again-real-west-also-see-my.html

In Re Roy Baker October 10 Class

2005-10-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

Once again we are confronted by the uncomfortable reality of the West that contradicts popular conceptions of a romantic landscape peopled by heroic figures living the American dream. The Roy Baker Inquest investigates the brutal murder of a soldier in the darkness of a stormy night in an isolated place along the railroad tracks outside Fort Russell in 1890. Instead of telling us about brave cavalrymen in the John Wayne mode riding to the rescue of settlers embattled by hostile Indians, the Baker Inquest portrays drunken soldiers spending their time drinking and gambling in bars and bordellos.

Army life is described as a boring round of sentry and fatigue duty, which leads men to think of deserting and living an outlaw life in the hills. The soldiers of Fort Russell spend all their free time in in Cheyenne and only return to the Post in time for reveille. There is no talk of spit, polish, parades, or gallant actions against native savages. Instead, the soldiers' lives are centered on the dreary town with its drinks, games, and bawdy women.

The murder of Roy Baker is part of an intricate plot by some of the soldiers to desert, steal weapons, rob establishments in town, take horses and mules, and live as outlaws in the mountains. The plot goes awry, and Baker is killed. Parkison gets the blame, but the confusing and contradictory testimony of many witnesses raises many doubts and suggests other possibilities, Wyatt Earp's lawyer would have gotten Parkison off.

Reading these documents is a good lesson in historical research. The lesson is that primary source documents are often confusing and difficullt to interpret. They can be used to support different conclusions. The exercise drives home the point that good history is about much more than the "truth.'

Roaring Camp and Wyatt Earp October 3 Class

2005-10-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Roaring Camp by Susan Lee Johnson tells the story of the upside down world of the mining camps during the California Gold Rush in which complex social relationships arose from the mixing,mingling, and fighting of diverse immigrant and native populations. Rather than follow traditional accounts of the period that focus on the work of mining and its economic consequences, Johnson concentrates on telling the story from the point of view of gender and race and their impact both on what happened and how the events were remembered.

She describes the complex labor relations that evolved in the mines as conflict occurred among the various groups of miners in a srruggle for dominance won by Anglo Americans. Native Miwoks, Chileans, Mexicans, French, African Americans, and, later, Chinese were all dominated by whites backed by the force of an anti-Indian, anti-foreign, and anti-black state government. Labor disputes embodied the language of free labor, but amid the variety of unfree labor systems in the mines, that concept was not a driving force. In the mines black slavery, Mexican and Chilean peonage, and, later, Chinese slavery all existed alongside free labor.

Social relationships are a focal point of Johnson's book. The vast majority of early miners were men who developed homosocial relationships in an attempt to replicate the comforts and customs of home. Men did domestic chores like washing clothes, danced with each other, and shared domiciles. The presence of Mexican, Chilean, French, and Indian women engendered new hierarchies of gender and race. Eventually, the arrival of white Anglo women consolidated Anglo dominance and restored more traditional relationships.

In her epilogue Johnson recounts how the Gold Rush story was memorialized in contemporary writings. One pamphlet tells how a white man turns to crime and is hanged. Its cautionary message warns that the desire for gold may lure a man to evil in the wild world of the mining camps. Another pamphlet describes the robbery and killing of a white merchant by five Chinese. The story is complex and sends a mixed message that foreigners are to be feared by whites but that whites should not rush to judgment either. Finally, Johnson relates how Bret Harte's novels represent the popular memory of the Gold Rush in which the moral complexity of the mines is elided in a world of white men engaged in a romantic struggle for dominance.
The book shows how once again Native Americans lose out in the struggle for cultural and economic power. Their land is invaded and their way of life disrupted. They try to maintain their customary practices but in the end are reduced to putting on dancing shows in native costume for the whites who reward them with coins.

Murder in Tombstone by Steven Lubet tells the story of the gunfight at OK Corral and the subsequent legal proceedings to determine whether or not the killings there by the Earp brothers et al were justified. The book is a fascinating account of legal strategy and competition, but more importantly, it is an exercise in historical interpretation of primary source documents. Lubet demonstates how lawyers can manipulate facts to support the cause of their client. He also shows how historians can plausibly reach different conclusions in their analysis of primary source documents. Wyatt Earp was not charged and became a celebrated American icon, but Lubet shows that he could have been convicted of murder and hanged. Different interpretations of the same evidence can produce different outcomes both in courtrooms and history books.

Audrey's Blog 4

2005-09-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

See my comments on Audrey's blog at http://ahaugan616.blogspot.com/2005/09/blog-4-winter-countlewis-clark.html

One Vast Winter Count and Journals of Lewis and Clark September 26 Class

2005-09-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

In One Vast Winter Count, Colin Calloway traces the history of native american peoples in the West from pre-Columbian days to the early 1800's. Thousands of years before it became the New World North America was a human habitat. The book's title refers to the pictures drawn on buffalo hides by the Plains' Indians to serve as memory prompters for their oral histories. As Calloway says, "The West is not a land of empty spaces with a short history; it is a vast winter count." Instead, it is ". . . a linear or cyclical story of human experience that stretches back thousands of years . . . ." (p. 21)

Calloway tells the story of the many tribes inhabiting the West and how they mixed, mingled, and responded to the encroachment of invading Europeans. He recounts the damage caused by the devastating expeditions of the conquistadors. The Spaniards exploited the Indians, enslaving many, killing others, and brutally suppressing their culture. At the same time they introduced the horse, which transformed Indian life. Further upheavals were caused by French fur traders and priests, land-hungry English colonists, and the wars between these nations for control over the North American continent. He shows how trade acted as a conduit for the scourges of disease, liquor, and guns that decimated the Indians.

The significance of the book is twofold; it not only provides a comprehensive narrative of the long history of native peoples in the West but places the relatively brief story of the American West in that narrative. As Calloway states, "American expansion and occupation of the West occurred in the blink of an eye, historically speaking." (p. 431) Also significant is his conclusion that modern America is doomed to experience catastophic failure due to its mismanagement of resources and failure to balance the needs of its population with the resource capacity of the land. He argues that America is not an exception to the historical experience. Calloway says, "There is no American exceptionalism." (p. 422) He prophesies that "the only truly exceptional thing about American history will be that it happened in America." (p. 433) He argues that while America is riding high as a nation today, it remains subject to the repetitive cycles of history. "No one gets to be top dog forever." (p. 433) On this decidedly pessimistic Malthusian note, Calloway veers off the road into the ditch of Marxist determinism and ends his narrative with the prediction that America will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

Bernard DeVoto's edition of The Journals of Lewis and Clark picks up the story of the West where Calloway left off. He describes the journey of Lewis and Clark to explore the land acquired in the Loisiana Purchase and seek out a water passage from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The journals describe in detail the land, the animals, and the people they encounter. DeVoto points out that the wilderness expanse explored by Lewis and Clark was a blank both on the map and in human thought. Theirs was the first report on the mysterious West that filled in the blanks and marked the trail of manifest destiny. According to DeVoto, it was "the beginning of knowledge of the American West." (p. ix) However, as Calloway states, "The West that Lewis and Clark saw was not a pristine wilderness; it was a landscape that had evolved over millions of years and an environment that had been shaped by Indian and animal life for thousands of years." (p. 428)

Lewis and Clark created a new calendar as their journey established the starting point of American history in the West. Reading the journals with the knowledge imparted by Calloway gives a new perspective on that history, showing that the westward movement after Lewis and Clark "occurred in the blink of an eye." (p. 431) Reading these two books together presents the history of the West as a seamless progression over thousands of years in which the story of the American West after Lewis and Clark is properly placed as only a small part.

Turner

2005-09-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Ben-
I agree that the longevity of Turner's thesis is in part due to the lack of a cohesive civil rights movement in the west comparable to the one in the south that destroyed the southern magnolia myth.
Dave

Turner

2005-09-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

I posted comment on Kent's essay

http://kentplace.blogspot.com/2005/09/week-2-frontier-in-american-history-by.html

Frederick Jackson Turner September 19 Class

2005-09-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

Frederick Jackson Turner's seminal essay of 1893, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," exerted both a revolutionary and revitalizing influence on the study of American western history. His explanation of the evolution of American society as the development of successive frontiers in an inexorable westward march set a new paradigm, which has survived for over a century despite continuous attack by historians who view it as a seriously flawed oversimplification of the western movement. Turner's thesis was that frontier communities experienced an evolutionary process comparable to the process by which civilization itself developed. As settlers moved west, they left behind the functions and structure of eastern government and had to adapt to primitive conditions in a wilderness environment. Early pioneers improvised solutions to social problems as they fought Indians, set up political organizations, and allocated land in their communities. The first settlers moved on to new lands, and later settlers filled in behind them in a cotinuing progression of hunters, traders, farmers, and city dwellers, as the early wilderness communities grew into towns and cities.

Jackson beleved that free land was the key to American socital development. It constituted a safety valve for discontent, as those who felt constricted by the encroachment of urbanization could always move on to the new frontier. Of couse, once the frontier was gone, as Turner declared it to be, the liberating force of free land was gone with it, and he believed a new basis for American societal progress must be sought.

Many historians have criticized Turner's frontier thesis as oversimplifying a complex process while omitting numerous important factors. Richard Hofstadter in The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Barrington (New York: 1968) scathingly described some of those omissions, e.g., "the careless, wasteful, and exploitative methods of American agriculture; . . . the waste of resources; . . . the failure of the free lands to produce a society free of landless laborers and tenants; . . . the frequent ruthlessness of the frontier mind; . . . the arrogant, flimsy, and self-righteous justifications of Manifest Destiny engendered by American expansionism." (p. 147-48) Perhaps the most glaring omission was the role of native Americans in western history. Turner regarded them as nothing more than savages temporarily impeding the progress of civilization. He also ignores the role of women who were an important part of the settlement process.

Despite much justified criticism, Turner's theory has survived primarily because it articulates and gives validity to the popular and patriotic image of the western pioneers held dear by the majority of white Americans. Turner's description of the all-American qualities of rugged individualism, creativity, adventurousness, and love of freedom resonates as strongly today as it did in 1893. As modern western historians grapple with the complex social, political, and environmental issues of the region, they can never ignore the frontier thesis but must somehow incorporate it into their historiographical analysis or risk being criticized for an incomplete study. While perhaps flawed and incomplete, Turner's analysis is nevertheless itself a part of western history.

The American West & Legacy of Conquest September 12 Class

2005-09-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Our readings this week serve as a great introduction to our study of the American West. Both books are broad and comprehensive surveys of the history of westward expansion, and both successfully lay to rest the traditional myth that the westward movement was a triumphal journey of hardy pioneers who battled the wilderness and hostile Indians to realize the American dream of economic independence through land ownership. The Hollywood sets for Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Little House on the Prairie bore little resemblance to the West as described by Hine, Farragher, and Limerick.

In The American West Robert Hine and John Mack Farragher trace the settlement of the West as European invaders confronted native and pushed them westward, creating a series of frontiers through an interactive process often involving violence but also encompassing cultural, economic, political, and environmental elements. The result was a merging of peoples and cultures in a story with many twists and turns. The West was not just a "place;" it was more a process of outsiders going to many places and competing with the natives for dominion over the land and its resources.

The Turnerian concept of the West as a moving "meeting point between civilization and savagery" that Turner declared over in 1893 is shown to be a vast oversimplification that ignored many factors, not the least of which was the role of native peoples. In fact, western history is a story of a multidimensional world that became more diverse as people of different ethnic ancestries met and mingled. It is much more complicated than a story of warfare and conquest. The book debunks the myth of the heroic pioneer as well as the concept of the Indian as a primitive savage.

In The Legacy of Conquest Patricia Limerick takes a more partisan approach to the westward movement and focusses on the injustice done to native peoples and ethnic minorities by conquering invaders. She compares the failure of racial justice in the West to the legacy of slavery in the South. She refutes the Turnerian concept of the settling of the West as a romantic adventure ending with the "closing" of the frontier in the 1890's. Instead, she argues that the settlement process was one primarily of economic exploitation by greedy invading newcomers (mostly white Anglos) competing with the natives for natural resources, property, and profits in a contest for both economic and cultural domination.

This is a book about "conquest." Limerick looks at the West both as a place as well as a process, a meeting point of many ethnic and racial groups tied togetjher by the theme of conquest. These groups compete for legitimacy as the rightful beneficiaries of we6tern resources. "This intersection of ethnic diversity with property allocation unifies western history." (p. 27) She emphasizes the continuity of the western experience in arguing against the preoccupation with frontiers, as she describes other bonds of regionalism , including the prevalence of aridity and hence preoccupation with water, the presence of mining industries, reliance on the federal government, and the continuing pattern of ethnic and racial diversity. She demonstrates that the settling of the West was an unsettling and complex process with no clear, smooth end.