Trails

January 1, 1991
This volume showcases some of the best of the new Western history, a school that seeks to correct omissions and inadequacies in traditional historical treatment of the American West. These revisionists view the West as a region that had its own cultures before the arrival of Anglo-Americans rather than as virgin territory to be conquered; the roles of women, Native Americans and Mexicans fill out the picture. The deans of traditional Western history, Frederick Jackson Turner and Walter Prescott Webb, come in for a fair amount of criticism. While several of the articles are historiographic, defining this new mode of analysis, others--such as Walter Nugent's ``Frontiers and Empires in the Late Nineteenth Century,'' which draws parallels between 19th-century colonialism and America's westward expansion--are both accessible and informative. In all, the 12 essays provide a worthy introduction to an ongoing reappraisal of our frontier past. Limerick is the author of The Legacy of Conquest ; Milner wrote Major Problems in the History of the American West ; and Rankin is editor of Montana: The Magazine of Western History .

February 1, 1992
%% This is a multi-book review. SEE the title "Under an Open Sky" for next imprint and review text. %% ((Reviewed Feb. 1, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)