Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America's Western Past

by William Cronon

“If you prefer history served in a dozen fresh ways, get this book.” ―Chicago Tribune The history of the American West is being transformed by exciting new ideas, new questions, new scholarship. For many years this field was dominated by popular images of the lone cowboy and the savage Indian, and by Frederick Jackson Turner's concept of the frontier as a steadily advancing source of democracy and social renewal. But now historians and even the merchants of popular culture are reshaping our views of the frontier and the West by taking up a rich array of new subjects, including the stories of diverse peoples as well as the history of the land itself. A new generation of scholars is reformulating the broader questions also: What was the significance of the frontier in American history? What are the bases of western identity? What themes connect the twentieth-century West to its more distant past? The transformation of western history continues to be an open-ended, turbulent process. The original essays in this volume are reports from the frontier of change. In their diverging assumptions and conclusions, they reflect the vitality of this field. They succeed when they make the case for new questions and suggest possible answers. They advocate no single agenda. But taken together they well represent the passion and high craft with which scholars are creating a new western history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Westerns, Environment

372 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

William "Bill" Cronon is a noted environmental historian, and the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was president of the American Historical Association (AHA) in 2012.

Reviews

[Julie Bozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this back in the day, after the film "Tombstone" turned me onto Westerns. Fan fic ensued, and much reading and research. I began and abandoned a serious novel, which I hope to pick up again and complete now. All of which explains my shelf of Western-related books. This was the first volume I returned to as part of reconnecting with my half-done novel.

"Under an Open Sky" was a key text for me back then. Originating in a history conference, it took a good thorough look at the (then) state of play in the history of the American West. Scholarship had evolved significantly and widely beyond Frederick Jackson Turner's "frontier school", but there were still many expanses left to explore.

Overall, this volume gave me a sense of how complicated, multifarious and fascinating the American West was - beyond anything I had imagined until then. It was published almost 30 years ago, however, and I would like very much to read a survey of the current state of Western scholarship. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of essays, originally published in 1992, with a very specific agenda. I'm in the early stages of working on a book about the "Rocky Mountain intellectual tradition" (phrasing may change). So it was striking to me how little attention the writers give to the states that occupy the time zone, an imperfect definition, but good enough for a start. Sara Deutsch's essay on race in the West begins with a fascinating sketch of the Hispanic enclave of Greeley, Colorado; John Faragher's "Americans, Mexicans, Metis" juxtaposes New Mexico and Quebec; D.Michael Quinn's survey of religion incorporates Utah's Mormonism. There's a bit about gender in mining and logging communities, but not much else. (I started by checking the index, which presented an even bleaker picture; turns out the index isn't particularly well done.)

So. If you want the Rockies, the interest is limited.

For the West as a whole, it's a useful point of reference, one very much grounded in the moment of its publication, which results in an interesting tension between backward-looking and forward-looking historical approaches. The "backward" part is reflected in the drumbeat of references to Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" specifically and the myth of the frontier more generally. By 1992, the historical consensus had definitely reduced Turner's vision of the frontier as the cradle of democracy from fact to myth. Nonetheless, as many of the essayists reflect, that myth played and continued to play a shaping role in the history of region and nation; see Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan for details. Patricia Limerick's discussion of Henry Nash Smith's Vigin Land as a germinal text in American Studies and Western history does a great job of showing how the Turnerian approach resonates in fascinating ways. The "forward" part of the mix comes through clearly in the essays advancing a more diverse vision of regional history: Deutsch and Farther on race; Deutsh and Katherine Morrissey on gender. In the years since the publication of Under an Open Sky, numerous historians have responded to the calls of those essays, which means readers grounded in that history are likely to nod and say "of course" without learning a lot new. Not a failing of the book, just more evidence of how time changes reading.

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, I had such high hopes for this book.. Not that it failed, but rather I failed it. It's currently overdue at the library because I keep forgetting about it. The three essays I read in it were really great, but I think I just have a problem reading essays. It doesn't help that I only ever read in bed, or in dark, quiet places (work). It's going to fall into that embarrassing category of "eternally reading" unless I snap myself up by my bootstraps.

Okay, I got two more essays down since writing this, but I really should get the book back to the library. I'm shelving it in "to-read" until I can approach it with fair attention.