Deftly retracing a pivotal chapter in one of America's most dramatic stories, Elliott West chronicles the struggles, triumphs and defeats of both Indians and whites as they pursued their clashing dreams of greatness in the heart of the continent.

This engaging and richly annotated atlas illustrates the distribution of Kansas settlers from diverse cultural and ethnic origins in America and around the world. James R. Shortridge explores how frontier settlement patterns were influenced by railroad routes and promotion; land prices and speculation practices; homesteading laws; U.S. and international social, economic, and political conditions; terrain; weather; and pioneer perseverance. He also demonstrates that many legacies of the original settlers have endured and are apparent today in social, political, agricultural, and religious customs throughout the state. Providing new and enlightening insight into a unique cultural heritage, Peopling the Plains is an invaluable building block for anyone interested in the people and places of Kansas, past and present.

The first scholarly study of ethnicity in Wyoming appeared in 1977 under the title of Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming's European Heritage. The book represents a major development in Wyoming historiography and gave Wyoming a place in immigration history. Its essays vary in style, methodology, and perspective, but the book provided a starting point for further work. More important the settlement of Wyoming is now viewed as part of the continuum of ethnicity on the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West. The monographs include: Country Squires and Laborers, British Immigrants in Wyoming by John C. Paige; Dream and Fulfillment, Germans in Wyoming by Donald Hodgson and Vivien Hills. The Italian Experience in Wyoming by David Kathka; The Basques in Wyoming by David A. Cookson; Mines and Miners, The Eastern Europeans in Wyoming by Earl Stinneford; Faith, Hard Work, and Family, The Story of the Wyoming Hellenes by Dean P. Talagan; Immigration and Assimilation in Wyoming by Gordon Olaf Hendrickson. Author bios. Researchers. Advisory Council. Index. Research Teams: Riverton (Donna Bouletter, Vanessa Dickinson, Ron Diehl, Adele Hessling, Rosemary Williamson); Rock Springs (Ann Burns, Nancy Louise Cranford, Wallace R. Lee, Terry Lee Pawleska, Dennis Dee Roe, Charles H. Tate); Sheridan (Rick Badgett, Randy Fall, Joan Helmerick, Fay Macalister, Charlotte Myers, Jeni Nowak, Elmer Reisch Jr, Carol Ann Stinneford). Torrington (Dorothy Brown, Janice Hodgson, Melodie Houk, Donald Houush, Marcella Newman, Margarie Reid, Geraldine Wood); Cheyenne (Carmen Blackman, Valle Montgomery, Linda Muggenburg, Juanita Paige, Betty Jo Parris, Shirley Sancher, Sally Speight, Linn Stubbs, Kathleen Sullivan, Susan M. Tanner, Peggy Tempte, Martha Thompson, Shirley Wallace, Pamm Wetherbee, William H. Barton, Monty Beach, William J. Collins, Clem Eacker, Lou Gonzales, Scott Haynes, Joe Hubka, John R. Johns, Rich McVeigh, Charles R. Paige, Bud Sills.

This book uses archaeology to tell 15,000 years of history of the indigenous people of the North American Great Plains.

Perhaps the oldest modern human settlement in Europe, the archaeological site at Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov, located in the rolling, forested plains just north of the Danube River, has yielded a treasure trove of Ice Age artifacts since its first excavation in 1924. The earliest people who lived here some 30,000 years ago produced tools crafted from stone and bone and carved elaborate animal and human figurines fashioned of mammoth ivory and sculptures of fired clay, including the famous “Venus of Dolní Věstonice,” one of the oldest known ceramic artifacts in the world. Interestingly, novelist Jean M. Auel took much of the inspiration for her popular novel, Clan of the Cave Bear, from the discoveries at Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov. Richly illustrated throughout, including beautiful color renderings of scenes from Paleolithic life suggested by Svoboda’s research, this first English translation of Dolní Věstonice–Pavlov: Explaining Paleolithic Settlements in Central Europe is sure to provide not only vital information for scholars, researchers, and students but also insightful and thought-provoking background for interested general readers.

Acclaimed historian Walter Nugent brings us what is perhaps the most comprehensive and fascinating account to date of the peopling of the American West. In this epic social-demographic history, Nugent explores the populations of the West as they grow, change and intersect from the Paleo-Indians, the Spanish Conquistadors, to displaced Okies, wartime African American immigrants, and all the disparate groups that have made California the most ethnically diverse state in the union. Their tale, in all its complexity, is a tale that surprises, that subverts traditional stereotypes and that illuminates the multifaceted character of one of the world’s most unique and dynamic territories.