Whether seen as a land of opportunity or as paradise lost, the American West took shape in the nation's imagination with the help of those who wrote about it; but two groups who did much to shape that perception are often overlooked today. Promoters trying to lure settlers and investors to the West insisted that the frontier had already been tamed-that the only frontiers remaining were those of opportunity. Through posters, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and other printed pieces, these boosters literally imagined places into existence by depicting backwater areas as settled, culturally developed regions where newcomers would find none of the hardships associated with frontier life. Quick on their heels, some of the West's original settlers had begun publishing their reminiscences in books and periodicals and banding together in pioneer societies to sustain their conception of frontier heritage. Their selective memory focused on the savage wilderness they had tamed, exaggerating the past every bit as much as promoters exaggerated the present. Although they are generally seen today as unscrupulous charlatans and tellers of tall tales, David Wrobel reveals that these promoters and reminiscers were more significant than their detractors have suggested. By exploring the vast literature produced by these individuals from the end of the Civil War through the 1920s, he clarifies the pivotal impact of their works on our vision of both the historic and mythic West. In examining their role in forging both sense of place within the West and the nation's sense of the West as a place, Wrobel shows that these works were vital to the process of identity formation among westerners themselves and to the construction of a "West" in the national imagination. Wrobel also sheds light on the often elitist, sometimes racist legacies of both groups through their characterizations of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. In the era Wrobel examines, promoters painted the future of each western place as if it were already present, while the old-timers preserved the past as if it were still present. But, as he also demonstrates, that West has not really changed much: promoters still tout its promise, while old-timers still try to preserve their selective memories. Even relatively recent western residents still tap into the region's mythic pioneer heritage as they form their attachments to place. Promised Lands shows us that the West may well move into the twenty-first century, but our images of it are forever rooted in the nineteenth.

"Patricia Limerick is simply one of the best writers alive."--Garry Wills

An introductory survey of the important debates about key issues in the cultural history of the contemporary American West. Neil Campbell introduces the ways in which the West has been represented and interpreted within American culture, myth and ideology, especially questioning the concept of the 'New West'. In so doing he looks at the way contemporary theories such as feminism, multiculturalism and environmentalism can be used to revise long-held notions of the West. The book looks in turn at the ways the West has been represented in landscapes and environments, art and photography, film, and literature*Introduces theoretical ideas from Bakhtin, Benjamin, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari*Looks at the landscape photography of Ansel Adams, Mark Klett and Richard Misrach*Explores Westerns including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Lonely are the Brave, Unforgiven and Heaven's Gate*Analyses the work of authors such as Cormac McCarthy, Edward Abbey, Terry Tempest Williams, Raymond Chandler*Includes Native American (Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie and Gerald Vizenor) and Chicano/a (Gloria Anzaldua and Sandra Cisneros) literatureAs well as functioning as a survey text, the book is original in its combining of ideas, texts and materials rarely brought together, and in its employment of the tools of cultural studies and interdisciplinary practice. As such it will challenge the reader to reconsider conventional ideas about the American West. Illustrated with black and white photographs, this is an accessible and exciting intervention in one of the most popular aspects of American history.

Hamer has written a broad, comparative overview of the evolution of British-derived urban traditions in four former colonies: the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.