"Limerick is one of the most engaging historians writing today." --Richard White The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality; in hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here she interprets the stories and the characters in a new way: the trappers, traders, Indians, farmers, oilmen, cowboys, and sheriffs of the Old West "meant business" in more ways than one, and their descendents mean business today.

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

Explores the representations of violence in colonial Nuevo Mexico as seen in history and fiction literature of the period.

The global community, dependent as always on the cooperation of nation states, is gradually learning to address the serious threats to the cultural heritage of our disparate but shared civilizations. The legacy of conquest, colonialization, and commerce looms large in defining and explaining these threats. The essays contained in this challenging volume are based on papers presented at an international conference on cultural heritage issues that took place at Willamette University . The conference sought to generate fresh ideas about these cultural heritage issues; offer a good sense of their nuances and complexities; and reveal how culture, law, and ethics can interact, complement, diverge, and contradict one another. This book seeks to accomplish these purposes. What it explores is the fact that, allong with an emerging blend of adversarial and collaborative processes to address cultural heritage issues, has come a substantial broadening of the normative framework in recent years. This framework now spans a welter of issues ranging from the creation of cultural safety zones during armed conflict, to the ongoing rectification of genocidal conquest during the European Holocaust and World War II, to the treatment of shipwrecks and their cargo, to the protection of folklore and other intangibles, to the promotion of traditional knowledge in the interest of biological diversity. All of these topics are controversial, as are the legal instruments that incorporate them, but the issues they embrace are vital to us all, whether our viewpoint is in the global arena, a national legislature, a courtroom, a classroom, an archaeological site, or a museum.

Analysis of Columbus and his discovery of the New World and how it changed the distribution and mixture of life-forms and cultures.

Cain Sinclair has a plan. In order to finally bring peace to his clan, he will wed the young female chief of their greatest enemy. Only problem: capturing her and forcing her back to Sinclair castle doesn’t exactly make her want to say yes. Ella Sutherland may be clever, passionate, and shockingly beautiful, but what she isn’t is willing. Every attempt Cain makes to woo her seems to backfire on him. A gift? The kitten practically claws his eyes out. A competitive game of chess? Even when he wins, he loses. It seems the only time the two ever see eye to eye is when they’re heating up Cain’s bed. Still, the only thing Ella truly wants is the one thing he cannot offer her: freedom. But when Cain discovers she’s been harboring a secret—one that could threaten both clans’ very existence—he’ll have to decide between peace for the Sinclairs or the woman who’s captured his heart. Each book in the Sons of Sinclair series is STANDALONE: * Highland Conquest * Highland Warrior * Highland Justice * Highland Beast * Highland Surrender

Paradoxically, contemporary horrors like ethnic cleansing are deeply rooted in humanity's highest aspirations, which have given rise to countless similar upheavals and atrocities perpetrated over millennia. Although the ideals embodied in religion and philosophy are considered to be humanity's prime "civilising" force, religions that preach love have been used to justify bloody massacres, and utopian ideals have fomented intolerance and persecution of those who were perceived as obstacles to the realisation of an ideal society. John Mohawk, a distinguished Native American historian, examines this paradox and traces the role of utopian thinking as the rationale for religious wars, subjugation of indigenous peoples, genocide, enslavement, plunder, economic domination, and campaigns of world conquest from the time of the ancient Greeks. Mohawk examines the hidden dynamic within utopian thinking and the danger it poses when it is adopted by powerful groups who use it to serve their own interests. He points out that the danger lies not in the utopian ideal itself but in the parallel assumption that its followers are in possession of the only "truth" and are therefore justified in forcing their "better way of life" on other cultures or nations for the ultimate good of humanity. In a gripping historical narrative, Mohawk traces the impact of utopian thinking on the rise of Western culture in ancient Greece and Rome, the emergence of the Christian empire, and the holy wars of the Middle Ages. Showing how this mindset has shaped Western development, he makes it clear that the utopian legacy still influences contemporary social and political movements at home and abroad. Our greatest challenge is to find ways to defuse its harmful effects on cultures different from our own, while preserving our aspirations and personal ideals. Mohawk argues that only a pluralistic outlook can truly support peace and understanding among the peoples of the world.