History 4120 The Twentieth Century West Spring 2004

History 4120 The Twentieth Century West
Spring 2004, MacKay

Schedule and Topics

Weeks 1-2 Introductions/The West as a Region

The Turnerian idea of successive frontiers of dominant culture bringing the power of civilization" to bear, has been seriously challenged in recent years, for its triumphalism as well as for its ethnocentrism, its limited ways of seeing the world, its discounting of the role of native peoples and nonwhite migrants in this history of the region, and its lack of concern for the environmental cost of the transformation of the West.

Weeks 3-5 Creating the West

This rich and wonderful country--the progress of which at the present time, is the wonder of the old world--was until recently, inhabited exclusively by the lurking savage and wild beasts of prey. If the rapid progress of the "Great West" has surprised our people, what will those of other countries think of the "Far West," which was destined at an early day, to be the vast granary [grain producing region], as it is now the treasure chamber of our country?...

In the foreground, the central and principal figure, a beautiful and charming Female, is floating westward through the air bearing on her forehead the "Star of Empire...." On the right of the picture is a city, steamships, manufactories, schools and churches over which beams of light are streaming and filling the air--indicative of civilization. The general tone of the picture on the left declares darkness, waste and confusion. From the city proceed the three great continental lines of railway.... Next to these are the transportation wagons, overland stage, hunters, gold seekers, pony express, pioneer emigrant and the warrior dance of the "noble red man." Fleeing from "Progress"...are Indians, buffaloes, wild horses, bears, and other game, moving Westward, ever Westward, the Indians with their squaws, papooses, and "pony lodges," turn their despairing faces towards, as they flee the wondrous vision. The "Star" is too much for them.

...What home, from the miner's humble cabin to the stately marble mansion of the capitalist, should be without this Great National Picture, which illustrates in the most artistic manner all the gigantic results of American Brains and Hands! Who would not have such a beautiful token to remind them of the country's grandeur and enterprise which have caused the mighty wilderness to blossom like the rose!!!

Excerpts from explanatory text that George A. Croffut provided to market John Gast's 1872 lithograph American Progress.

academic journal #1 due: February 9; Include responses to

Internet sites on the West

guidance of the makers of the Western "meta-narrative"

Turner's 1893 essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

Nash sections 1-3

DeVoto essay "Plundered Province"

Summary of Webb's Great Plains thesis

Issues about "frontier" and "borderlands"
about "process" and "place"

formal response paper #1: How are you now prepared by your reading (Nash and other texts, including Internet sites) and class discussions to study the history of the twentieth century West? What issues about this region do you now consider of significance?

draft due: February 18
final version due: February 23

Weeks 6-10: The Eagle Bird;

excerpts from: Abbey, Stegner, Silko, Limerick

formal response paper #2: What does it mean for you to live in this place--the West? Taking The Eagle Bird and the other readings as models--how do you have a sense of this place? What issues about this place are you most concerned?

draft due: March 10
final version due: March 12

March 8: Cowgirls--film, viewed in Diversity Center, Union Bldg.

March 12: no formal class

Spring Break: March 15-19

Week 10: Book presentations

Academic journal #2 due: March 22

Nash sections 3-end

the assigned selections from Eagle Bird

Internet resources

excerpts from Abbey, Stegner, Silko, Limerick

response to film Cowgirls

notes on book presented

Nash presents the historiography of the American West in the following categories:

the frontier thesis
the West as a region
western patterns of urbanization
the West as myth, utopia

Wilkinson proposes that the West is distinguishable as a region because it has the following:

islands of sovereignty--American Indian reservations
diverse landscapes -- wild places and wild creatures
aridity which necessitates a mindfulness about the watersheds
national parks

Nelson Limerick admits that the West is not "a unit of homogeneity and internal consistency," but that much of the territory shares common characteristics:

aridity and semi-aridity--which has inspired a campaign to "normalize" this landscape
Indian reservations and Indian people
the West is part of the Pacific Rim and shares a border with Mexico--much of the West was once under the sovereignty of Mexico
the West contains the bulk of the land still under federal control--and is a case study in how the U.S. conducts conquest
the West has a particularly dramatic and long-term involvement with boom/bust economies of extractive industries
a long involvement with the commercial, intentional mythologizing of the region as a place of escape and adventure
is the nation's dumping ground

Vale and Vale’s Eight Popular "Mental Images" of the Present-Day American West:

Empty Quarter: a Land to be Plundered and Exploited by Outsiders
Frontier: Mythic Home to the Exotic, the Wild, and the Rugged individual
Big Rock Candy Mountain: Land of Unbounded Opportunity for the Everyman; Bonanza/Eureka/Strike-it-Rich Country
Middle Landscape: A Harmonious World of Human Beings Living Within their Natural Environment; A Pleasant , Healthy Mix of Wilderness and Civilization; The Garden
Turnerian Progression: Place for the Steady Evolution of Human Society Towards Urban Civilization
Desert : Fragile, Vacant, Arid Land
Protected Wild Nature: National Parks and Other Monuments of Spectacular Examples of Natural History
Playground: Venue for Outdoor Recreation

Source: Thomas R. Vale and Geraldine R. Vale, Western Images, Western Landscapes: Travels Along U.S. 89 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989). See their 1994 article "Where is the American West?": http://homepage.smc.edu/morris_pete/papers/aag1994.pdf

As you work with the following in your academic journal consider: Where is the "American West" and what role does it play in shaping our larger national "American" culture?

Also work with the information presented in charts and maps on Western Futures: Development, Land Use, and Population Trends in the American West: http://www.centerwest.org/futures/

Week 11: The Federal Presence

Week 12: Boom/Bust

April 7: no class

Week 13: Borderlands

April 16: no class

Week 14: Dumping Ground

April 23: no class

Week 15: Images of the Twentieth Century West

April 26: no class

academic journal #3 due: April 30 (I will accept through May 3). Include the following:

your responses to White article, documents in chapter 9, and 7 maps

your responses to documents in chapters 1, 4, 5, 9, 14 and "Boom and Bust in the American West;" and your reaction to suggestions for tempering the boom and bust cycle of the West

after reading the documents in chapters 3 and 15, 1 of the Atlantic articles, and 2 articles from the Tucson Times respond to the suggestion that "borderlands" is a more apt and helpful characterization of the West as a region that "frontier."

after reading from some of the posted Internet sites, consider the implications of the West being distinctive as a region for "dumping."

after watching 2 of the 1950s films set in the 19th century West, consider the ways the films depict the major theme of the western: redemption through violence; the questions in the films about friendship, about fatherhood, about domesticity, about "inside" and "outside" spaces. After watching 2 films set in the 20th century West, consider issues of place in the films, issues of family and friendship, and issues of redemption.

May 4, 9:30: Resource Guides presented; brunch. We will meet at the Oaks in Ogden Canyon.

Trip to Cody, Wyoming: May 14-16

Buffalo Bill Historical Center: http://www.bbhc.org/index_flash.cfm

for information about accommodations: http://www.pctc.org/