The American West in 2000: Essays in Honor of Gerald D. Nash

Preface

After Gerald D. Nash retired in the mid-s from full-time teaching at the University of New Mexico,he returned occasionally to campus to chat with his longtime colleagues in the Department of History. Frequently these conversations turned to classic and new historical writings about the recent United States and the AmericanWest and sometimes, at our instigation, to Nash’s shaping role in those fields. Historiography, historical methods, and philosophies of history always intrigued him. On one occasion, as we chatted about these subjects, we asked Nash if he would allow us to celebrate his academic contributions— through a scholarship,a research fellowship,or a collection of essays in his honor. Two years before his untimely death in November , Nash expressed his preference for a festschrift. This volume follows Nash’s wishes.After eliciting a list of potential contributors from Nash,we wrote to several colleagues,at the University of New Mexico and elsewhere, and to his former students to ask if they might contribute to this volume. Following Nash’s suggestion, we requested that all contributors focus their articles on historical subjects in the post–WorldWar IIAmericanWest.Here is the result.Taken together, these essays provide a valuable overview of important topics in recent western American history. The introduction to this collection, by Nash’s longtime colleague Ferenc M. Szasz,illustrates the wide,clear impact that Nash’s ideas have had on his colleagues and students.Then follows Nash’s brief but illuminating autobiographical piece, which traces his life from his natal Germany through his years of academic training and on into his lengthy career of research and teaching.Next Margaret ConnellSzasz ,a former student and later Nash’s colleague at the University of New Mexico, contributes an interest-whetting sample of her comparative work on NativeAmerican and Celtic cultures.Another of Nash’s students,Arthur Gómez, draws on his experience in the national park system to provide a valuable essay on tourism and the national parks, past and future.The next essay, on the Bureau of Reclamation, Preface vii  is by long-term friend Donald J.Pisani,a leading authority on water and irrigation policies in the AmericanWest. The following three articles are contributions by Nash’s students. One of his doctoral students,Marjorie Bell Chambers,herself a political activist,provides an overview of western women rallying for their political rights in the years since .Then Carol Lynn MacGregor extracts information from her recently completed dissertation to furnish an illuminating summary of cultural life in Boise, Idaho, from  to . Another of Nash’s doctoral students, Christopher J. Huggard, supplies a rewarding discussion of conflicts between mining developments and environmental policies in the recent West. The final four essays are from Nash’s colleagues.The first, by Ferenc Szasz, building on his extensive studies of religion in the United States and theAmerican West,analyzes several major trends in organized religion in the recentWest.Roger W. Lotchin follows with a probing discussion of urban sprawl in late-twentiethcentury western cities.Moving outward,Gene M.Gressley,perhaps Nash’s closest professional colleague, contributes a sweeping, provocative overview of the contemporaryWest in world perspective.The final essay,by coeditor RichardW. Etulain, surveys the impact of Nash’s scholarly publications, especially those in the field of twentieth-century American western history. During his long,distinguished career,Gerald D.Nash made several major contributions to the study of modern American and western American history.This collection of essays on the recentAmericanWest testifies to the extensive impact that he has had on shaping the contours of these historical fields. —Richard W. Etulain viii | PREFACE ...