"As the Western began to flourish in literature, it also began to appear in illustrations and early comic strips of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. William Grady charts the history of the genre in comic strips and books from its origins in this period through its mid-century heyday to its gradual decline in the 60s and 70s, ending with a brief look at the current "afterlife" of Western comics over the last few decades. In doing so, he also argues for the importance of comics in the development of the Western alongside both literature and film/television. He explains how the mythic-historical settings of Western comics allowed the young readers at whom they were aimed to explore different aspects of their contemporary society, wrestle with taboo topics, and envision different futures for the US. Grady begins by exploring the origins of the Western genre in the late 19th century and shows the importance of illustrated narratives and cartoons in helping readers visualize the West, thus establishing much of its iconic imagery of frontier life, including racist stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples. He moves forward in time to show how the West became mythologized and fantastic elements were introduced into the real landscape in comic strips such as Gasoline Alley and Krazy Kat, until the Great Depression, where strips emphasized the escapist adventures of the West in Red Ryder, Lone Ranger, and others. The postwar Western spread into comic books and was used alternately as positive and negative commentaries on the Cold War and America's place in the world, but in the era of Vietnam and Watergate, Western comics portrayed darker reflections of American culture and history and eventually more or less died out. Despite the genre's apparent demise, Grady ends by examining its ongoing influence over the last decades as its tropes are used to interrogate and subvert the idea of the mythic West and explore diverse perspectives on the genre"--

Memorial to a passing era? Mistress to history? Illustration of popular legend? Where is the art in traditional narrative western art? Is it kitsch or kunst? Six writers on art and popular culture survey the terrain of western art in the twenty-first century, tracing and refining its boundaries in the areas of aesthetics and national identity. Their sharp-eyed observations support a newly emerging history of western art that places it in a social, psychological, and political-as well as aesthetic-context. The result is a refreshing, vigorous, and substantial contribution to American art history.

Memorial to a passing era? Mistress to history? Illustration of popular legend? Where is the art in traditional narrative western art? Is it kitsch or kunst? Six writers on art and popular culture survey the terrain of western art in the twenty-first century, tracing and refining its boundaries in the areas of aesthetics and national identity. Their sharp-eyed observations support a newly emerging history of western art that places it in a social, psychological, and political--as well as aesthetic--context. The result is a refreshing, vigorous, and substantial contribution in America art history.

In Reapportionment and Redistricting in the West, Gary F. Moncrief brings together some of the best-known scholars in American state and electoral politics to explore the unique processes and problems of redistricting in the western United States. These political scientists examine the specific challenges facing western states in ensuring fair and balanced political representation. Western states tend to be geographically large and experiencing rapid population growth and the chapters in this enlightening volume discuss the changing demographics in western states, paying special attention to the rise in the Latino population and the effect this has had on reapportionment and redistricting. They describe the ways in which some of these states achieve redistricting through independent redistricting commissions—a process rarely found in other regions—and they provide policy prescriptions for the future.

After World War II, some 12 million Germans, 3 million Poles and Ukrainians, and tens of thousands of Hungarians were expelled from their homes and forced to migrate to their supposed countries of origin. Using freshly available materials from Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czechoslovak, German, British, and American archives, the contributors to this book provide a sweeping, detailed account of the turmoil caused by the huge wave of forced migration during the nascent Cold War. The book also documents the deep and lasting political, social, and economic consequences of this traumatic time, raising difficult questions about the effect of forced migration on postwar reconstruction, the rise of Communism, and the growing tensions between Western Europe and the Eastern bloc. Those interested in European Cold-War history will find this book indispensable for understanding the profound--but hitherto little known--upheavals caused by the massive ethnic cleansing that took place from 1944 to 1948.

Have de-industrialization, expanding services and occupational upgrading put an end to class divisions? Drawing on extensive empirical research, this book adds new insights to the debate about the end of class and shows that Western European societies remain decidedly stratified with respect to material advantages and citizenship rights.

From the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands to the Sahara, images of danger depict a new world disorder on the global margins. With vivid detail, Ruben Andersson traverses this terrain to provide a startling new understanding of what is happening in remote "danger zones." Andersson takes aim at how Western states and international organizations conduct military, aid, and border interventions in a dangerously myopic fashion, further disconnecting the world's rich and poor. Risk-obsessed powers are helping to remap the world into zones of insecurity and danger, resulting in a vision of chaos crashing into fortified borders. Andersson contends that we must reconnect and snap out of this dangerous spiral, which affects us no matter where we are. Only by developing a new cartography of hope can we move beyond the political geography of fear that haunts us. From back cover.