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Power and Place in the North American West
Edited by Richard White and John M. Findlay
Western historians continue to seek new ways of understanding the particular mixture of physical territory, human actions, outside influences, and unique expectations that has made the North American West what it is today. This collection of twelve essays tackles the subject of power and place from several angles-Indians and non-Indians, race and gender, environment and economy-to gain insight into major forces at work during two centuries of western history.
The essays, related to one another by their concern with how power is exercised in, over, and by western places, cover a wide range of times and topics, from 18th-century Spanish New Mexico to 19th-century British Columbia to 20th-century Sun Valley and Los Angeles. They encompass analyses of the concept and rhetoric of race, theoretical speculations on gender and powerlessness, and insights on the causes of current environmental crises.
"Perhaps the most important thing about this book of essays is the intellectual daring of the editors and the contributors in tackling the extremely important but extremely difficult linkage of power and place in the West. This is an admirable example of innovative, pioneering scholarship."-Richard M. Brown, University of Oregon
"A fine collection of provocative essays. The apparently straightforward term 'power,' like 'place,' offers multiple angles of understanding and opens our appreciation of the splendid complexity of these topics."-Elliott West, University of Arkansas
Series: Emil and Kathleen Sick Lecture-Book Series in Western History and Biography
Table of Contents:
Introduction PART 1: INDIANS AND NON-INDIANS Coboway's Tale: A Story of Power and Place Along the Columbia Violence, Justice, and State Power in the New Mexican Borderlands, 1780-1880 Making "Indians" in British Columbia: Power, Race, and the Importance of Place PART 2: RACE IN THE URBAN WEST Federal Power and Racial Politics in Los Angeles During World War II Race, Rhetoric, and Regional Identity: Boosting Los Angeles, 1880-1930 Recasting Identities: American-born Chinese and Nisei in the Era of the Pacific War PART 3: ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY Tourism as Colonial Economy: Power and Place in Western Tourism Creating Wealth by Consuming Place: Timber Management on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest "Politics Is at the Bottom of the Whole Thing": Spatial Relations of Power in Oregon Salmon Management Natures Industries: The Rhetoric of Industrialism in the Oregon Country PART 4: GENDER IN THE URBAN WEST Lighting Out for the Territory: Women, Mobility and Western Place Contributors Index
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Pub Date:
1999
ISBN:
PAPER: 0-295-97773-6 9780295977737
Price:
Paper: $19.95s
Subject Listing:
Environmental History Western History Political Science
Bibliographic information:
336 pp., charts, maps, notes, index
Published with:
Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest
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