Daily Readings and Web Assignments for The American West, Spring 2008

Daily Readings and Web Assignments

	Unit 1: Why Study the American West?
Jan. 12	The American West in Fact and Myth
Jan. 14	Studying the West from different Vantage Points
Jan. 16	The West in American History
Jan. 19	No Classes: Martin Luther King Holiday
Jan. 21	The Legacy of Conquest in the West
	Unit 2: The Cultural Geography of the West
Jan. 23	The Geography of the West
Jan.. 26	The Environments of the West
Jan. 28	Empire and Innocence in the West
Jan. 30	The Origins of the Mythic West
Feb. 2	An Indian's View of the West
Feb.. 4	The West as Home: Living in the West
	Unit 3: The West in the Movies and Novels
Feb. 6	The Fictional Mythic West
Feb. 9	The Western Hero in the Movies
Feb. 11	The Male West and the Battle for Civilization
Feb. 13	Saving the West for Women and Civility
Feb. 16	The Western Hero's Struggle with the Land
Feb. 18	The Western Hero's Struggle with his Heart
	Unit 4: The West as Meeting Place for Diverse Peoples
Feb. 20	The American West as Borderlands: The West as Frontier and as La Frontera
Feb. 23	The Indian West: The West as Home
Feb. 25	The Hispanic West: The West as Mexico
Feb. 27	Race and Racialism in the West
Mar. 2	Understanding the Present and Future West
	Unit 5. The Contradictions of Western Development
Mar 4	The Past and Present Mining Frontier
Mar. 6	The Past and Present Logging Frontier
Mar. 9	The Past and Present Ranching Frontier
Mar. 11	The Past and Present Farming Frontier
Mar. 13	The Past and Present Tourist Frontier
Mar. 16	The Conflict between the Rural and Urban West
Mar. 18	Environmentalism, Wilderness , and saving the West from the Future
	Unit 6: The Federal Government and the West
Mar. 20	Western Denial of their Dependence on the Federal Government
Mar. 23-27	No Classes: Spring Break
Mar. 30	The New Deal Transforms the West
Apr. 1	The West as a "Dependent" of the Federal Government
Apr. 3	The Lords of Yesterday and the Sagebrush Rebellion
Apr. 6	Nuclear Testing & Ecocide in the West
	Unit 7: The West as Environment, Cultural Region, and Home
Apr. 8	The Struggle between Conservationism and Preservationism in the West
Apr. 10	Preservationists and the Struggle to Preserve Wilderness in the West
Apr.. 13	Dis-orientation and Re-orientation in the Modern West
Apr. 15	The West as a Developed Region
Apr. 17	Balancing Commercial, Recreational, and Tourist Uses of the West
Apr. 20	Learning to Live in the West as a Region
Apr. 22	Restoring and Renewing the West as Home
	Unit 8: The Future of the West
Apr. 24	The Old West, New West, and Future West
Apr. 27	Who Should Own the West?
Apr. 29	The Challenge of Smart Growth
May. 1	The West and the Geography of Hope
Final Exam	Designing Future Scenarios for the West in 2040


Extra	Environmentalism in the Modern West
	Wallace Stegner and the Future of the West