The story of the westward expansion of this country does not stop with the hardships encountered by travelers on the Mormon Trail, the discomforts endured by early settlers in sod houses, the bravery of the Pony Express riders, the romantic solitude of the cowboys, or the sufferings of the Indians forced to abandon their homes bleak and alien country. Much has been written about these colorful episodes and, through the courtesy of Hollywood and TV, has been brought into millions of homes in living color. But what happened to the people, including the Indians, who survived the great raid on Fort X, the bitter winters and scorching summers spent in primitive housing, the terrible loneliness and lack of communication with eastern kin? What did migrants do when they reached the end of the Mormon Trail? And did the Cherokees’ Trail of tears become a never-ending journey from one “relocation” to another? How did people develop and accommodate themselves to an environment which was itself constantly altered by an ever-changing society? In these essays we find that tragedy and joy, victory and defeat, human fulfillment and human degradation are visible in roughly equal proportions in the story of the Americanization of the West: that the goals, both realistic and unrealistic, of one group, society, or culture are frequently pursued only at the expense of other groups; and that the skeletons in the closet of American history abound to a greater extent than a nation convinced if its own virtue is willing to admit. Racism has plagued the nation since its inception, and exploitation of one group by another was sadly a part of the Western frontier. However, there was a freshness and vigor in the history of the West. Young railroads continued to grow, linking productive farms with brawling cities. New businesses and new political parties emerged, all contributing to the growth of the region that Stephen A. Douglas called the “adhesive of the Union.” These essays do not add up to a complete history of the Trans-Mississippi West: rather, each historian has pursued his own particular research interest, and various topics and settings are presented in this volume. The result is a fascinating collection that serves to illuminate both the tragedies and accomplishments of the westward movement.

National Conference on Frontier Challenges and Amelioration for Environment and Life Sciences has been organized by Department of Botany, Government College, Bichhua Dist. Chhindwara Madhya Pradesh, India. The theme of the conference is Future we want, and transform the earth with special reference to environment and microbes. This conference provides a platform for the students, researchers, faculties and those who are involved in real time projects, to exchange and share new ideas in the field of Life Sciences and to introduce cutting age technology for the betterment of the environment. It accentuates problems and solutions towards environmental challenges and sustainable development.

Americans imagine the Early West as a vast expanse of almost empty land populated only by farmers, ranchers, cattle, and horses. Now a leading scholar challenges this stereotype with his concise examination of early city planning and urban development in the region. Extending and elaborating on studies by Carl Bridenbaugh and Richard Wade of the Atlantic Seaboard and the Ohio Valley, John Reps demonstrates that throughout the Trans-Mississippi West cities and towns, not farms and ranches, formed the vanguard of frontier settlement. Urban communities thus stimulated rather than followed the opening of the West to agriculture. These cities did not grow randomly, for their founders established patterns of streets, lots, and public sites to guide expansion as population increased. Reps supports his thesis with 100 illustrations-plans, maps, surveys, and views-showing the original designs of every major Western city and of dozens of smaller places. Based on Reps's massive Cities of the American West (winner of the Beveridge Prize in 1980), this succinct account includes extensive notes and references that will be useful to readers who wish to pursue his penetrating critique.

This pioneering text is the first to present a framework for remote-rural and frontier nurse practitioners (NPs), with a focus on the political and contextual forces that influence practice. This groundbreaking text distills contextual knowledge required for frontier practice, describes how it differs from work in more populated locations, and discusses the special skills and training needed in this setting. It addresses the art and ethics of frontier practice, the relationship between federal policy and frontier health care, and how to advocate for adequate health care in remote areas. Also included are rich narrative case studies, in which NPs vividly describe why they decided to practice in the frontier environment. They also discuss the educational and work experience needed for frontier practice, the potential complications of treating patients who are also friends and neighbors, and how to manage emergency medical and trauma experiences in remote environments. Key Features: Provides the first model for frontier and remote-rural NP practice based on narrative evidence Introduces the new frontier and remote (FAR) methodology and demonstrates its use in nursing research Illustrates how narrative nursing knowledge contributes to the discipline and informs theory Provides a systematic review of key literature relating to frontier NP practice Discusses the link between federal policy and rural health care and its impact on NP practice Distills educational and policy recommendations from the practice experiences of frontier NPs

Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy highlights the use of religious identity to fuel the rise of illiberal, nationalist, and populist democracy. In Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy, David Elcott, C. Colt Anderson, Tobias Cremer, and Volker Haarmann present a pragmatic and modernist exploration of how religion engages in the public square. Elcott and his co-authors are concerned about the ways religious identity is being used to foster the exclusion of individuals and communities from citizenship, political representation, and a role in determining public policy. They examine the ways religious identity is weaponized to fuel populist revolts against a political, social, and economic order that values democracy in a global and strikingly diverse world. Included is a history and political analysis of religion, politics, and policies in Europe and the United States that foster this illiberal rebellion. The authors explore what constitutes a constructive religious voice in the political arena, even in nurturing patriotism and democracy, and what undermines and threatens liberal democracies. To lay the groundwork for a religious response, the book offers chapters showing how Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism can nourish liberal democracy. The authors encourage people of faith to promote foundational support for the institutions and values of the democratic enterprise from within their own religious traditions and to stand against the hostility and cruelty that historically have resulted when religious zealotry and state power combine. Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy is intended for readers who value democracy and are concerned about growing threats to it, and especially for people of faith and religious leaders, as well as for scholars of political science, religion, and democracy.

The former president of MIT discusses challenges and policy issues confronting academia, science and technology, and the world at large. In his fourteen years as president of MIT, Charles Vest worked continuously to realize his vision of rebuilding America's trust in science and technology. In a time when the federal government dramatically reduced its funding of academic research programs and industry shifted its R&D resources into the short-term product-development process, Vest called for new partnerships with business and government. He called for universities to meet the intellectual challenges posed by the innovation-driven, globally connected needs of industry even as he reaffirmed basic academic values and the continuing need for longer-term scientific inquiry. In Pursuing the Endless Frontier, Vest addresses these and other issues in a series of essays written during his tenure as president of MIT. He discusses the research university's need to shift to a broader, more international outlook, the value of diversity in the academic community, the greater leadership role for faculty outside the classroom, and the boundless opportunity of new scientific and technological developments even when coupled with financial constraints. In the provocative essay "What We Don't Know," Vest reminds us of what he calls "the most critical point of all," that science is driven by a deep human need to understand nature, to answer the "big questions"—that what we don't know is more important than what we do. In another essay, on the future of MIT, he celebrates MIT's strengths as being extraordinarily well-suited to the needs of an era of unprecedented change in science and technology. In "Disturbing the Educational Universe: Universities in the Digital Age—Dinosaurs or Prometheans," he describes MIT's innovative OpenCourseWare initiative, which builds on the fundamental nature of the Internet as an enabling and liberating technology. Vest, who is stepping down from MIT's presidency in the fall of 2004, writes with clarity and insight about the issues facing academic institutions in the twenty-first century. His essays in Pursuing the Endless Frontier offer inspiration to educators and researchers seeking the way forward.