The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America - Softcover

Athearn, Robert G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0700603778 ISBN 13: 9780700603770

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1986

Synopsis

"Just what and where is the West? Why have so many been so obsessed with finding and saving that mythic time and place? What has the West meant to those who have lived there and to the millions more who have journeyed there only in their imaginations? And how have the answers to these questions changed with the years? The issues involved here—the place of the West and the frontier experience in our search for a national identity—have inspired a small library of important books during the last thirty years or so. Most of these writers have given their attention to those confident and aggressive years of the nineteenth century when the frontier was sweeping across the continent.

"Athearn's contribution, in part, is to pursue the shifting perceptions of the West into the present century. There the story has taken new twists as Americans have confronted hard lessons about themselves and their land. Again and again the message of events has been much the same: We are running short of resources and of room to grow. The region that once seemed endlessly bountiful and forever wild has become a land of narrowing limits. With this realization, popular feelings about the West, 'the most American part of America,' have swung erratically between hope and disillusionment, affection and anger. Yet the myth has survived, however battered and bent into new shapes. . . .

"The Mythic West is by no means meant as a full treatment of its subject. Instead Athearn uses each chapter to consider from a different angle certain developments that have shaped the modern West and some of the ways these transformations have in turn molded what people have thought and dreamed about that land. . . . It is informed by his characteristic intelligence and graced by the humor and felicity of style his readers have come to expect. As do his other works, it leaves us with a deeper, richer understanding of that elusive and complex place, the West, which he knew as well as anyone ever will."—from the Foreword

About this title

Review

"An exceptional book. . . . [Recommended for] all libraries."Choice

"A fine portrait of the recent West: its booms and busts, its enormous rearrangements of population, its endless search for a settled identity, and its chronic tension over wanting outside help and resisting outside control."Western Historical Quarterly

"An engaging social history."Publishers Weekly

"Treat yourself to a really readable and wise book if you have any interest in what it means to be Western, or in what other people think it means."Denver Post

"Spirited and witty. Told with poise and affection."Washington Post Book World

"This excellent book was the last one written by Robert G. Athearn, a foremost historian of the high country frontier who helped shape and train a generation of scholars. . . . His final statement is a blend of personal observation and scholarship. [It] is also an intelligent, witty account of the western mystique by one of its great devotees."Journal of American History

"The Mythic West is by no means meant as a full treatment of its subject. Instead Athearn uses each chapter to consider from a different angle certain developments that have shaped the modern West and some of the ways these transformations have in turn molded what people have thought and dreamed about that land. . . . It is informed by his characteristic intelligence and graced by the humor and felicity of style his readers have come to expect. As do his other works, it leaves us with a deeper, richer understanding of that elusive and complex place, the West, which he knew as well as anyone ever will."from the Foreword

"The best interpretative study of the twentieth-century American West to date: it is informed, witty, personal. . . . This is high country history at its best."Martin Ridge, coauthor of Westward Expansion

"One of the most delightful, thoughtful, penetrating, and knowledgeable books on the American West. . . . A real love affair, and a joy to read."Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., author of Now That the Buffalo's Gone

"Magnificent. . . . This book is a must for anyone interested in understanding the recent history of a major portion of the American West."Howard R. Lamar in Colorado Heritage

From Library Journal

This "blend of scholarship, personal observation, and opinion" identifies the social and economic forces that molded the West in the 20th century, contrasting the realities of Western development with the ever-changing public perceptions and fantasies responsible for the Western myth. Athearn draws from a wide range of scholarly and popular sources in the course of his discussion. But despite clever turns of phrase, witty analogies, and sporadic insights, the book suffers from the lack of a clearly stated premise and logically structured narrative. It reads like an interminable monologue that never gets to the point. The best features are the illustrations and the "Essay Sources" which include the author's references as well as recommendations for additional reading. Frank Schroth, Technology Training Assoc., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0700603778
• ISBN 13: 9780700603770
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 330