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

Daily Readings and Web Assignments

	Unit 1: Why Study the American West?
Aug. 25	The American West in Fact and Myth
Aug. 27	Studying the West from different Vantage Points
Aug. 29	The West in American History
Sept. 1	No Classes -- Labor Day Holiday
Sept. 3	The Legacy of Conquest in the West
	Unit 2: The Cultural Geography of the West
Sept. 5	The Geography of the West
Sept. 8	The Environments of the West
Sept. 10	Empire and Innocence in the West
Sept. 12	The Origins of the Mythic West
Sept. 15	An Indian's View of the West
Sept. 17	The West as Home: Living in the West
	Unit 3: The West in the Movies and Novels
Sept. 19	The Fictional Mythic West
Sept. 22	The Western Hero in the Movies
Sept. 24	The Male West and the Battle for Civilization
Sept. 26	Saving the West for Women and Civility
Sept. 29	The Western Hero's Struggle with the Land
Oct. 1	The Western Hero's Struggle with his Heart
	Unit 4: The West as Meeting Place for Diverse Peoples
Oct. 3	The American West as Borderlands: The West as Frontier and as La Frontera
Oct. 6	The Indian West: The West as Home
Oct. 8	The Hispanic West: The West as Mexico
Oct. 10	Race and Racialism in the West
Oct. 13	Understanding the Present and Future West
	Unit 5. The Contradictions of Western Development
Oct. 15	The Past and Present Mining Frontier
Oct. 17	The Past and Present Logging Frontier
Oct. 20	The Past and Present Ranching Frontier
Oct. 22	The Past and Present Farming Frontier
Oct. 24	The Past and Present Tourist Frontier
Oct. 27	The Conflict between the Rural and Urban West
Oct. 29	Environmentalism, Wilderness , and saving the West from the Future
	Unit 6: The Federal Government and the West
Oct. 31	Western Denial of their Dependence on the Federal Government
Nov. 3	The New Deal Transforms the West
Nov. 5	The West as a "Dependent" of the Federal Government
Nov. 7	The Lords of Yesterday and the Sagebrush Rebellion
Nov. 10	Nuclear Testing & Ecocide in the West
	Unit 7: The West as Environment, Cultural Region, and Home
Nov. 12	The Struggle between Conservationism and Preservationism in the West
Nov. 14	Preservationists and the Struggle to Preserve Wilderness in the West
Nov. 17	Dis-orientation and Re-orientation in the Modern West
Nov. 19	The West as a Developed Region
Nov. 21	Balancing Commercial, Recreational, and Tourist Uses of the West
Nov. 24-28	No Classes -- Thanksgiving Holiday Week
Dec. 1	Learning to Live in the West as a Region
Dec. 3	Restoring and Renewing the West as Home
	Unit 8: The Future of the West
Dec. 5	The Old West, New West, and Future West
Dec. 8	Who Should Own the West?
Dec. 10	The Challenge of Smart Growth
Dec. 1 2	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