In this Book
Making the White Man's West: Whiteness and the Creation of the American West
The West, especially the Intermountain states, ranks among the whitest places in America, but this fact obscures the more complicated history of racial diversity in the region. In Making the White Man’s West, author Jason E. Pierce argues that since the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the American West has been a racially contested space. Using a nuanced theory of historical “whiteness,” he examines why and how Anglo-Americans dominated the region for a 120-year period.
In the early nineteenth century, critics like Zebulon Pike and Washington Irving viewed the West as a “dumping ground” for free blacks and Native Americans, a place where they could be segregated from the white communities east of the Mississippi River. But as immigrant populations and industrialization took hold in the East, white Americans began to view the West as a “refuge for real whites.” The West had the most diverse population in the nation with substantial numbers of American Indians, Hispanics, and Asians, but Anglo-Americans could control these mostly disenfranchised peoples and enjoy the privileges of power while celebrating their presence as providing a unique regional character. From this came the belief in a White Man’s West, a place ideally suited for “real” Americans in the face of changing world.
The first comprehensive study to examine the construction of white racial identity in the West, Making the White Man’s West shows how these two visions of the West—as a racially diverse holding cell and a white refuge—shaped the history of the region and influenced a variety of contemporary social issues in the West today.
Table of Contents
Cover
Cover
Making the White ManâÂÂs West Whiteness and the Creation of the American West 2016
Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
Making the White ManâÂÂs West Whiteness and the Creation of the American West 2016
Acknowledgments
Contents
A Note on Terminology
Preface
Introduction: Whiteness and the Making of the American West
Part I. From Dumping Ground to Refuge: Imagining the White Manâs West, 1803â1924
Acknowledgments
1. âFor Its Incorporation in Our Unionâ: The Louisiana Territory and the Conundrum of Western Expansion
A Note on Terminology
9781607323969_0009
2. A Climate of Failure or One âUnrivaled, Perhaps, in the Worldâ: Fear and Health in the West
3. âThe Ablest and Most Valuable Fly Rapidly Westwardâ: Climate, Racial Vigor, and the Advancement of the West, 1860â1900
Introduction: Whiteness and the Making of the American West
Part I: From Dumping Ground to Refuge
4. Indians Not Immigrants: Charles Fletcher Lummis, Frank Bird Linderman, and the Complexities of Race and the Complexities of Race and Ethnicity in America
1 âFor Its Incorporation in Our Unionâ: The Louisiana Territory and the Conundrum of Western Expansion
Part II: Creating and Defending the White Manâs West
2 A Climate of Failure or One âUnrivaled, Perhaps, in the Worldâ: Fear and Health in the West
5. The Politics of Whiteness and Western Expansion, 1848â80
6. âOur Climate and Soil Is Completely Adapted to Their Customsâ: Whiteness, Railroad Promotion, and the Settlement of the Great Plains
3 âThe Ablest and Most Valuable Fly Rapidly Westwardâ: Climate, Racial Vigor, and the Advancement of the West, 1860â1900
7. Unwelcome Saints: Whiteness, Mormons, and the Limits of Success
4 Indians Not Immigrants: Charles Fletcher Lummis, Frank Bird Linderman, and the Complexities of Race and Ethnicity in America
Part II: Creating and Defending the White Manâs West
8. Enforcing the White Manâs West through Violence in Texas, California, and Beyond
Conclusion: The Limits and Limitations of Whiteness
5 The Politics of Whiteness and Western Expansion, 1848â80
6 âOur Climate and Soil Is Completely Adapted to Their Customsâ: Whiteness, Railroad Promotion, and the Settlement of the Great Plains
Bibliography
Index
7 Unwelcome Saints: Whiteness, Mormons, and the Limits of Success
8 Enforcing the White Manâs West through Violence in Texas, California, and Beyond
Conclusion: The Limits and Limitations of Whiteness
Bibliography
Index
ISBN | 9781607323969 |
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Related ISBN(s) | 9781607323952, 9781607329060 |
DOI | 10.1353/book.44595![]() |
MARC Record | Download |
OCLC | 935695789 |
Pages | 312 |
Launched on MUSE | 2016-02-05 |
Language | English |
Open Access | Yes |
Creative Commons | CC-BY-NC-ND |
Copyright
2016