This eight-week course offers an upper-division level survey of the American West, traveling chronologically from pre-contact ecology and culture, and continuing through the nineteenth century.  The course emphasizes five major themes: race, gender, capitalism, the environment, and the role of the federal government.  Yet a persistent intellectual question regarding the Aidea@ of the West will underlie these themes throughout the course.  The class will grapple with the elusive concept of the American West.  Although superficially, a ready definition for the West comes to mind, when the surface of this question is scratched, the answers become increasingly blurry.  Does the west represent a recognizable place, defined regionally and based on common attributes of culture, climate, or environment?  If so, where does the West begin and End?  Or, does the West represent a frontier process of settlement and development?  If so, who is involved in the process and who is not

Midterm exam scheduled for Thursday, July 15^th, comprises 25% of course grade.

Essay: Students will compose one essay, selected from a list of four essay questions.  Students must include specific content drawn from the lectures, assigned readings, or individual research to answer these questions successfully.  Students also need to establish an accurate chronology to demonstrate an understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship between events and ideas.  The evaluation of essays is largely based on peer performance curve.  Hence, no absolute or abstract guide exists to determine precisely how much evidence one needs to include in their essay. Those essays incorporating the most specific content will receive the highest marks, and others will be graded relatively.

Identifications: You will define four terms selected from a list of seven.  These definitions must include two elements: a description of specific details and an explanation of broader significance.  The specific description should address the who, what, where, when, and why information.  However, to ensure you have illustrated the broader significance of the term ask yourself the following questions.  How does this term reflect or symbolize a larger theme, trend, or model?  How is this term an important precedent or change from the past?  How does this term establish a new pattern?  How does this term fit into a larger cause-and-effect relationship?  How is this term influential?  Terms may encompass individuals, ideas, events, laws, court cases, publications, and places.

Final exam scheduled for Thursday, August 12^th, comprises 25% of course grade.

	Essay:  Students will compose two essays chosen from a list of five.
	Identifications: The final exam will not contain a short answer section.

Research paper.

Due Friday, August 13th by 5:00PM in my office.  The final version of the paper represents 35% of the course grade.

Research paper bibliography and thesis statement.

Due Wednesday, July 14th in class.  This component of the research paper is worth 5% of the course grade.

Class Discussion. 

Students' preparation for and contributions to class discussions assume the final 10% of the course grade. Three formal discussions are scheduled for July 1 & 21st and August 11th.

Extra credit film review. 

If students must miss a discussion or simply wish to bolster their grade they can attend any of the seven Thursday Night Film sessions and compose a three-page review of the film they view.

Richard White. " Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West.  This represents the textbook for the course.  The scholarship of Richard White has contributed to a burgeoning body of work known as the A New Western History."  Transcending an exclusive focus on the "Great White Male" and the more elite level of politics and economics, New Western Historians, such as Patricia Nelson Limerick, Donald Worster, and William Cronon have expanded, and in some cases begun, the exploration of traditionally ignored topics and people.  Examining the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, class, the environment, and everyday life, these scholars have established a new generation of historical study.          

  Henry Nash Smith. Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. This landmark intellectual history traces the evolving "concept" of the American West.  Published in 1950, Virgin Land still holds currency in present conversations about how American philosophers, journalists, politicians, novelists, and artists have constructed an image and identity of the West, its landscape, and inhabitants.  Although Smith does not address the medium of film, Richard Slotkin's 1992 encyclopedic Gunfighter Nation provides the companion piece.  The class will read excerpts from Slotkin and those attending the Thursday Night Films will have an opportunity to discuss these issues further.

Frederick Jackson Turner. The Frontier in American History. Although critically re-evaluated by the New Western Historians for his sins of omission and often racist world view, Turner remains the "Grandfather" of western history as one of the principal founders of this subfield within the historical discipline.  The ideas espoused in his seminal "Frontier Thesis," delivered before the 1893 convention of the American History Association, became the seedbed for a narrative of American historical development that would endure through much of the twentieth century.  This volume compiles a selection of Turner's essays.   

 All three books are available at the UO Bookstore.  I have also placed them on 4-hour reserve in the Knight Library. 

  Week 1:

	June 21: What or Where is the West? Reading: Turner, Chapters 1 and 2
	June 22: Pre-Contact Ecology and Culture Reading: White, Chapter 1
	June 23: Spanish Borderlands Reading:  White, Chapter 2
	June 24: The Fur Trade
	Thursday Night Film: Broken Arrow. 1950. Jimmy Stewart, Debra Pagent, Jeff Chandler, Jay Silverheels.

Week 2:

	June 28: Euro-American Exploration Reading: White, Chapter 5
	June 29: The Missionary Experience and the State of Deseret Reading: White, Chapter 7
	June 30: Expansionism, Filibusters, and the Mexican-American War Reading: White, Chapter 3
	July 1: Discussion:       Smith Part I Reading: Smith, Chapters 1 thru 10
	Due: Research Papers Topic Selections
	Thursday Night Film: The Gunfighter. 1950. Gregory Peck, Karl Malden, Helen Westcott.

Week 3:           

	July 5: Holiday. No class scheduled
	July 6: The Oregon Question and the Overland Experience Reading: White, Chapter 8
	July 7: Gold Rush
	July 8: Blacks in the Antebellum West: Slavery and Free Black Communities
	Thursday Night Film: My Darling Clementine. 1946. Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, walter Brennan, Linda Darnell

Week 4:

	July 12: Indians, Settlers, and the AGreat Father@ Reading: White, Chapter 4, pp. 85-104
	July 13: Women in the West Review: Time and place of extra session to be announced.
	July 14: Asians in the West Due: Research paper bibliography and thesis statement.
	July 15: Midterm Exam.
	Thursday Night Film: The Alamo. 1960. John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon

Week 5:                                                           

	July 19: Settlement in the Grade Era of Disposal Reading: White, Chapter 6
	July 20: The Public Domain, A Yeoman Republic, and The Tragedy of The Commons
	July 21: Discussion: Smith, Part II Reading: Smith, Chapters 11 thru 22
	July 22: Blacks in the Post-bellum West: Reconstruction and Migrations
	Thursday Night Film: Sergeant Rutledge. 1960. Constance Powers, Woody Strode, Jeffrey Hunter.

Week 6:

	July 26: The Plundered Province? Markets and Global Economy Reading: White, Chapter 10
	July 27: The Extractive West and Environmental Consequences Reading: White, Chapters 9 & 11
	July 28: The Myth and Reality of Violence in the West Reading: White, Chapter 13
	July 29: The Iconography of Violence: The "Outlaw," The "Gunfighter," the "Vigilante" and Social Banditry
	Thursday Night Film: Hombre. 1966. Paul Newman, Frederic March, Richard Boone, Diane Cliento.

Week 7:

	August 2: The Persistence of the "Vanishing Indian": Euro-American and Native American Relations, 1865-1900. Reading: White, Chapter 4, pp. 104-118.
	August 3: Cattle Barons and Sodbusters: The Clash of Competing Visions
	August 4: Populism, Labor, and the Politics of Protest Reading: White, Chapter 14
	August 5: The Politics of Reform
	Thursday Night Film: The Unforgiven. 1992. Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris.

Week 8:

	August 9:The Nineteenth Century Urban West Reading: White, Chapter 12
	August 10: The American West as Theater: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the International Exportation of the Western Image Reading: White, Chapter 21
	Review: Time and place of extra session to be announced.
	August 11: Discussion: Research Papers & The Significance of the American West Reading: Turner, Chapters 7, 9, and 11
	August 12: Final Exam.
	August 13: Due: Final version of research paper.