The West Author:Geoffrey C. Ward Geoffrey C. Ward provides a gripping journey through the turbulent history of the region that has come to symbolize America around the world. Drawing upon hundreds of letters, diaries, memoirs, and journals, as well as the latest scholarship, The West chronicles the arrival of wave after wave of newcomers from every corner of the compass, each o... more »f whom invested the harsh but majestic western landscape with its own myths and desires and dreams.
The cast is as rich and diverse as the western landscape itself -- Coronado and Custer, Chief Joseph and Buffalo Bill are all here. But so are scores of lesser-known westerner whose stories are no less compelling. It is the central story of America, a story filled with heroism and hope, enterprise and adventure, as well as tragedy and disappointment. The West chronicles the tensions between whites and the Native peoples they sought to displace, but it also encompasses the Hispanic experience in the West, from the time of the conquistadors to the transformation of a Mexican-American village called Los Angeles into the region's major metropolis; the lives of Chinese immigrants who called the region "Gold Mountain" and of freed slaves from the South who sought a better life homesteading on the Great Plains.
Beautifully told and meticulously researched, The West tells the story of a unique part of America and provides a metaphor for the country as a whole. With its heroism and iniquity, exploitation and adventure, sober realities and bright myths, it is the story of all Americans -- no matter where on the continent they happen to live, no matter how recently their ancestors arrived on its shores.« less