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As the editor of History Now,
let me welcome you back to another year in the classroom.
What better way to start the year than with an issue on
The American West? Of course, for many students, mention
of “The West” conjures up popular stereotypes:
macho cowboy heroes, Indians in warpaint, gunfights in
saloons, or wagon trains filled with pioneer families.
These images, powerful and simplistic, come from movies
and television and adventure books. But modern scholarship
has given us a much more complex, realistic—and
more interesting—history of the American west.
In this issue of History Now, leading historians
share an introduction to that new scholarship with us.
In his overview essay, “Born Modern: An Overview
of the West,” Richard White describes the area
west of the Missouri River from a new perspective: as
a laboratory for many of the modern developments we
often assume to have roots in the older states. Among
these are the extension of the authority and bureaucracies
of the federal government and the dominance of large
and powerful corporations in the local economy. In “The
Myth of the Frontier: Progress or Lost Freedom,”
John Mack Faragher traces the literary and screen history
of the west, from Daniel Boone to Clint Eastwood. The
western, he argues, tells a tale of progress, yet it
is an ambivalent tale. From James Fenimore Cooper’s
heroes to John Ford’s, many of the central characters
in these western tales are ambivalent about “progress,”
and mourn the loss of the “natural freedom”
enjoyed outside the boundaries of civilization. In “A
New Look at the Great Plains,” Elliot West, shows
us that American history looks dramatically different
if the Great Plains are taken as a starting point for
the study of our national past. He notes that the first
settlers on the continent came to the west, not the
Atlantic shore; that French and Spanish colonial empires
were created here just as the English created the 13
Atlantic coast colonies; and that the multiple Indian
cultures of the west provide a different perspective
from that of American pioneers. Next, Virginia Scharff
reminds us that the history of the west belongs to women
as well as men. In “Women of the West,”
Sharff introduces us to the critical roles women have
played, from the earliest Indian societies to the era
of the homesteaders to modern times. The west, she notes,
offered American women the same opportunity as it offered
men: the chance to reinvent themselves. Finally, in
“The Road to a New Era of American Indian Autonomy,”
Ned Blackhawk brings the story of Indians of the West
into the modern era, showing us how Indians, like African
Americans, sought justice through the court system and
the application of constitutional law.
These essays provide a starting point for discussions
and projects in the classroom that help our students
develop a richer and more complex understanding of the
West, one that should prove as exciting as the gunfight
at the O.K. corral. Studying the West allows us to stress
multicultural perspectives, geography and diplomacy,
economic growth and technological innovation, and gender
and race. But it also allows us to bring to life the
stories of fascinating women and men from Jim Bowie
to Owl Woman to Lewis and Clark. As always, our master
teachers offer you model lessons for elementary and
secondary history classes and our archivist offers you
a wealth of resources—from novels to history books
and articles to valuable websites and bibliographies
-- that you can draw upon in designing your own lessons
on the West. Finally, this issue’s interactive
feature allows you and your students to explore a “virtual”
west on the computer.
Our next issue focuses on technology—and how
it has changed our society.
Carol Berkin
Editor, History Now
Carol Berkin is Professor of History at Baruch
College and The Graduate Center, City University of
New York. She is the author of several books including
Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Conservative,
First Generations: Women in Colonial America, A Brilliant
Solution: Inventing the American Constitution,
and Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle
for America's Independence.
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