Frontiers: A Short History of the American West

by Robert V. Hine, John Mack Faragher

Published in 2000 to critical acclaim, The American A New Interpretive History quickly became the standard in college history courses. Now Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faragher offer a concise edition of their classic, freshly updated. Lauded for their lively and elegant writing, the authors provide a grand survey of the colorful history of the American West, from the first contacts between Native Americans and Europeans to the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Frontiers introduces the diverse peoples and cultures of the American West and explores how men and women of different ethnic groups were affected when they met, mingled, and often clashed. Hine and Faragher present the complexities of the American West—as frontier and region, real and imagined, old and new. Showcasing the distinctive voices and experiences of frontier characters, they explore topics ranging from early exploration to modern environmentalism, drawing expansively from a wide range of sources. With four galleries of fascinating illustrations drawn from Yale University's premier Collection of Western Americana, some published here for the first time, this book will be treasured by every reader with an interest in the unique saga of the American West.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, American, Indigenous, Westerns

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2007

Reviews

[Angian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una storia della colonizzazione del "West" americano. E' la versione ridotta di un saggio più ponderoso scritto dagli stessi autori.

Il livello di dettaglio si è rivelato ideale per chi come me è (era) del tutto digiuno di storia americana. Cercavo proprio di farmi un'infarinatura per meglio apprezzare il genere western, che non ho mai amato.

Si parte dai primi coloni del continente americano, gli spagnoli di Cortez, per poi passare alle altre potenze coloniali europee (inglesi e francesi), fino all'indipendenza degli Stati Uniti. Di qui parte la storia vera e propria del West, della Frontiera da spostare sempre più a ovest. Fatti importanti della storia americana (la guerra d'indipendenza, la guerra civile) sono solo accennatti per l'influenza che hanno sul tema principale del libro.

Noi tutti, inevitabilmente, siamo immersi nella cultura popolare americana. E conoscere un po' di più sulle sue origini non può fare che bene. I dettagli interessanti sono innumerevoli: l'origine di diversi toponimi; la causa della localizzazione dell'influenza francese lungo il corso del Mississipi; il rapporto di vicinato con il mondo ispanico. E, immancabile, lo zampino degli emigranti italiani: il fondatore della Bank of America, gigante finanziario e autore di innovazioni importanti (introduzione del credito al consumo e delle carte di credito), ha orgini italiane (liguri).

Passando a fenomeni più macroscopici, è noto che l'incontro tra i coloni anglofoni e i popoli nativi americani si è infelicemente concluso con il genocidio di questi ultimi; ma è interessante conoscere invece i tentativi, che ci sono stati, di trovare una sintesi tra le due culture.

E leggendo del West si capisce meglio la mitologia del "Sogno Americano", del primato dell'uomo pratico, del farcela a tutti costi. E si capisce soprattutto che si tratta, effettivamente di un mito. Si prenda ad esempio, la corsa all'oro della California (i famosi "forty-niners"): all'ingrossarsi delle file dei cercatori, le possibilità di arricchirsi col proprio lavoro si ridussero rapidamente; l'estrazione del metallo divenne redditizia solo per chi poteva praticarla industrialmente, impiegando getti d'acqua sotto pressione (e causando dissesti ecologici) -- ed impiegando grandi capitali, solitamente forniti da qualche "eastern".

E lo schema si ripete a tutti gli snodi del processo di colonizzazione: la divisione in lotti del terreno coltivabile, la costruzione degli acquedotti, la costruzione della ferrovia: grandi processi di trasformazione, spesso sotto l'egida del governo federale, di cui si avvantaggiano soprattutto pochi grandi capitalisti. Più che la nascita dell'uomo moderno, c'è da celebrare la nascita del capitalismo moderno.

[Laura Vogt · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A comprehensive, broad-sweeping overview of centuries of frontier life. I was very bored and listened at 2.25x speed. Frontiers was full of the big-characters, the movers and shakers of the time. Read: men and wars and government.

Take my boredom with a grain of salt: I always prefer social history, the history of worldviews (of how people conceived and created their world). As a history major, I found myself bored with wars and government -- instead interested in the stories of people we've never met before. Right now, I'm also laser-focused on women's history.

Of that note, he did have some wonderful, broad observations/arguments of the struggles of women on the frontier: perhaps isolation, not all the dangers, was the hardest struggle. I found that poignant and probably true.

Overall, this was not the book I was looking to read. That doesn't mean it wasn't fabulous.

If you want a survey -- this could be it.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broad strokes survey of the Frontier that’s a quick read. Few takeaways from the book:

1. While the frontier was the West to the USA, the frontier was the North to the Spanish/Mexican
2. The Frontier economy was boom and bust based on various natural resource extraction with relatively limited industrialization (for the most part)
3. Reinforcing with the Cattle Kingdom and Sicilian books, the romantic ideal of the lone cowboy was a fictional creation (starting even at the time) with most of the economic and political power accruing to the largest entities
4. The authors refer to the Spanish frontier as one of inclusion, with extensive intermarriage (probably going too far!) while the American frontier as one exclusion with constant pushing out of native people
5. Interesting mix of political independence vs. need for the government (demand for squatting rights etc)

[Camilla Illidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this is an excellently written book that covers the true, raw and unfiltered story of America. There is so much information here, and I’ve learned so much about America’s history. The author is able to perfectly balance smaller stories within the «bigger picture», making this a legit masterpiece in storytelling.

There is only one reason I’m not giving this five stars: if consuming this book as audiobooks (like me), it’s very hard to keep track of it all, especially in sections and chapters dense with names, political players, and events. Some of the war/conflict stories also felt difficult to follow due to the same reason.

This being said, it’s going to be worth your time reading this.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone seeking a thorough history of the West, this book may not satisfy you, since it jumps from topic to topic to fulfill the "Short History" requirement. Hine and Faragher do a great job with pre-1800 events, but chapters set afterward feel a bit choppy. Suddenly the reader is soaring from the Indian Wars to the New Deal to the L.A. Riots. The thesis of cultural encounters as the key to understanding the West is a bit obvious, but borne out by the stories Hine and Faragher retell. I think this book would work well as an intro text for undergrads, and it will make older (or Western-loving) readers seek out the unabridged version for their edification.

[Chris Linas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook on my daily commute. A good bird's eye overview of American expansion from a moderately critical academic perspective.

[Susan J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy to read and understand synopsis of westward colonization in the United States.

[Ivy Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A interesting book, but a little dry

[Dutchermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I prefer this earlier edition to their newer expanded version as a textbook for History of the American West.

[Kent Archie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't find it to be short, there was a lot of information in this.
It is sad that there are similarities between the poor treatment of immigrants back then and now.

[bindu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the way this was written.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a westerner I knew nuggets and boulders of the history of the "West" but this book does the best job of any I've read in laying it all out and showing how it is connected. The two authors show how "The West" and Frontier are synonyms in America's lexicon and how the history of this nation is really one of this constantly moving boundary.
If you want to believe in the idealistic West where Indians (Native Americans) are savages and Whites are civilized this book is NOT for you, it is a refreshing unflinching history of America - warts, scars and all.
For anyone who wants to understand the central cord of American history I highly recommend this book.

[Aaron Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want a short, accessible introduction to the American West that still respects the complexity of the people and events involved, this is a great place to start. It’s not a deep archival dive, but it is a clear, honest, and engaging overview that helps you see the West as it was: not as a legend, but as a real and extraordinarily complex place that shaped the nation in profound ways. The bibliography will also give you some gems for more reading into specific situations or people that pique your interest.

[Abraham Gustavson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid read on the American West. Hine gives a clear and concise overview of major topics. Good if you are unfamiliar with the major topics.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new historical interest has popped up for me recently- the American frontier, or "Old West" as it is commonly known. In searching for a suitable introduction to the topic, I ran across this book and decided to give it a try.
In the first place, the book does not seem as concise as it could be. I realize that it is a "brief" edition of an earlier work, and as such should not be expected to be quite as large in scope. But I could not shake the feeling that each chapter was a separate essay on a given topic related to the Old West. One on the Transcontinental Railroad, one on manifest destiny, and so on. Fine, but each "essay" has almost the same format- the basic facts, how the people reacted, how it affected women, how Eastern capitalists exploited it, and how terrible it was for Native Americans. Thus it is not entirely a linear narrative of frontier history, but a series of topic-specific chapters with no small amount of political commentary.
On the positive side, the book is fairly readable, and contains some wonderful illustrations. These include sketches from actual plainsmen and early photographs from all along the frontier. Where the literature itself is concerned, perhaps the finest chapter in the book is the one on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. This chapter was very fascinating and quite enjoyable to read.
Had I known nothing about the West before reading this book I might have been somewhat enlightened. But I feel that this could have been more comprehensive than it is. It's definitely worth a read, but for a definitive history, look elsewhere.