A New Significance: Re-Envisioning the History of the American West

In 1893, Fredrick Jackson Turner published his revolutionary essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." A century later, many of the country's most innovative scholars of Western history assembled at a conference at Utah State University under the direction of historian Clyde A. Milner II. Here they delivered essays meant to map the exciting new territory opened in recent years in the history of the West. Gathering the best of these essays, this collection aims to produce a compelling assessment of the newest Western historiography. The entries include William Deverell on the significance of the West in American history; David Gutiérrez on Mexican Americans; Susan Rhodes Neel on nature and the environment; Gail M. Nomura on Asia and Asian Americans; Anne F. Hyde on cultural perceptions; David Rich Lewis on Native Americans; Susan Lee Johnson on men, women, and gender; and Qunitard Taylor on race and African-Americans. Each essay is accompanied by commentaries written by other top scholars, and the eminent historian Allan G. Bogue supplies a penetrating introduction.