America's West A History, 1890–1950 Cambridge Essential Histories Series

The American West has influenced important national developments throughout the twentieth century, not only in the cultural arena, but also in economic development, in political ideology and action, and in natural resource conservation and preservation. Using regionalism as a lens for illuminating these national trends, America's West: A History, 1890?1950 examines this region's history and explores its influence on the rest of America. Moving chronologically from the late nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth century, David M. Wrobel examines turn-of-the-century expansion, the Progressive Era, the 1920s, the Great Depression and the New Deal, World War II, and the early Cold War years. He emphasizes cultural and political history, showing how developments in the West frequently indicated the future direction of the country.

List of figures; List of maps; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Frontier, region, nation, and crisis; 2. The rise of a leader and a region; 3. Democracy and intolerance; 4. Regional growth and cultural conflict; 5. From safety valve to safety net; 6. Exposing the promised land; 7. The landscape of war; 8. The good war?; Coda: the West at mid-century; Bibliography.

David M. Wrobel is a Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Promised Lands (2002), The End of American Exceptionalism (1993), and Global West, American Frontier (2013), which won the Western Heritage Award for nonfiction. He is a past president of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association and of Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society.