The American West: A New Interpretive History

by Robert V. Hine, John Mack Faragher

Two eminent historians, Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faragher, present the American West as both frontier and region, real and imagined, old and new, and they show how men and women of all ethnic groups were affected when different cultures met and clashed. Their concise and engaging survey of frontier history traces the story from the first Columbian contacts between Indians and Europeans to the multicultural encounters of the modern Southwest.

The book attunes us to the voices of the frontier’s many diverse Indians, struggling to defend their homelands and searching for a way to live with colonialism; the men and women who became immigrants and colonists from all over the world; African Americans, both slave and free; and borderland migrants from Mexico, Canada, and Asian lands. Profusely illustrated with contemporary drawings, posters, and photographs and written in lively and accessible prose, the book not only presents a panoramic view of historical events and characters but also provides fascinating details about such topics as western landscapes, environmental movements, literature, visual arts, and film.

Following in the tradition of Hine’s earlier acclaimed work, The American An Interpretive History, this volume will be an essential resource for scholars, students, and general readers.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Westerns, Research, American, Historical

616 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Shane DiGiovanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Excellent History

This book covers everything from Columbus’s first voyages to spaghetti westerns, and does so with great detail and aplomb. This could have very easily been a dry academic tome, and while it is dense, it’s also narratively compelling.

I learned a ton about the ever-changing relationship between settlers, including the Spanish, French, and Americans, and the First Nations peoples. I learned a ton about so much else, and so can you, if you read this excellent book. My only negative is I feel it doesn’t spend enough time on the era most associated with the “Old West” (1865-1890), but it makes up for that by being excellent elsewhere.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent text covering the whole history of the West, especially the history of the West after the 1990s.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

After yet another quote from a Native American, after a long section that was nothing but the multi-thousand word account of a battle from a Native American with no attempt at balancing history or intellectual honesty, the author noted that Karl Marx couldn't have said it better himself. This then is the middle of this book. Marx spun out through every minority voice that the authors could find. What the authors couldn't find they invented. More myth than truth and a book steeped to the gills with negativeity.
The book starts out as if it will be an interesting history of The West but becomes the studies of the oppressed minority a few chapters in. The West loses all grandeur and becomes merely the grinding down of everything good and noble.
Speaking of minority opinion, mine clearly is just such an opinion. If you want to know how the west was lost. This is the book for you. For me, it was a rare DNF as reading about the proletariat for the thousandth time was just too much. Imagine a book about the building of the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower that documented every case of worker unrest and every beam or girder made of shoddy steel, but failed to actually explain the grandeur of the building.

[Dominic0409 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fantastic history book - brilliant merging of political, cultural, environmental, regional, economic, history across several hundred years and a huge area in sophisticated and fascinating ways!

[Paul Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cornucopia of information. Did a great job of illuminating how the western part of the US was discovered, settled and grown. Very interesting. One detraction was the last chapter which didn’t pull everything together at the end.

[Elizabeth Vilchis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent textbook, but could use more Indigenous points of view.

[Matthew Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

too long and was just stretching out the book needlessly the last 100 pages

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent current look at the history of the West. My one criticism is that if you read chapter 7 til the end of the book while simultaneously reading Limerick's Legacy of Conquest, there are a lot of the same stories and a few of the same pictures. However, they are both very good books with emphasis on the conquest state of mind and people who have traditionally been silenced in history books.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in the American West.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a westerner myself this was a startling revelation of how brutal my glorified family history actually was. America is just as bloody and brutal as any empire that came before. Shocked, disgusted, and a little disheartened.

[Bud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview, representing more recent understanding of Western history.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so I didn't technically read all of this book. I read parts here and there to finish my assignments. It seemed well-written and a good rendering of the history of the American West.

[Allison Thurman]

Library

[Noah Weisling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for the Indiana Academoc Super Bowl competition and really enjoyed it. It was an easy read and entertaining. I really learned a lot about American history from this book.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good history textbook. Well laid out chapters and a nice selection of pictures throughout the text. Recommended

[James Bechtel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly, I was impressed with many elements of this book conceptually, thematically, and the selection of events that it chose to highlight.