The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West
Author | : Patricia Nelson Limerick |
Publisher | : W. W. Norton & Company |
Total Pages | : 404 |
Release | : 2011-02-07 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780393078800 |
ISBN-13 | : 0393078809 |
Rating | : 4/5 (00 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: "Limerick is one of the most engaging historians writing today." --Richard White The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality; in hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here she interprets the stories and the characters in a new way: the trappers, traders, Indians, farmers, oilmen, cowboys, and sheriffs of the Old West "meant business" in more ways than one, and their descendents mean business today.