Book Review of “The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West”

Resident Bill Miller’s review of The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West by Patricia Nelson Limerick [New York: Norton, 1987], is scheduled for Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 7 PM in the Auditorium.

The Legacy of Conquest is a very readable, scholarly history of the American West.  It is part of a body of historical writing commonly known as the New Western History which seeks to identify the factors that have made the Western United States the place that it is today.

Limerick, who earned a Ph.D in American Studies from Yale, taught at Harvard for four years before moving to the University of Colorado in Boulder where she directed the Center of the American West  She also served as Colorado State Historian and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

The author attempts to document an unvarnished history of the American expansion , drawing on a treasure chest of documents and personal accounts. Limerick views the American West as a place rather than as a process.  In land area it covers more than half of today’s United States.  It is an important meeting ground where Indian America, Latin America, Anglo-America and Asia intersected. Its languages and cultures were more diverse than the Northeast and Southern United States.

The West is often portrayed as a combination of good guys and bad guys, but Limerick points out that the truth is much more complex.  From the beginning of the westward expansion to the present day, the American West is full of competing interests. Throughout history the Federal Government has played a significant role, frequently at odds with the dream of freedom by people who are living in wide open spaces.

Expansion was driven by a continuous influx of European immigrants seeking the promise of a better life.  It started with hunters, trappers and traders who got along with the Native American population for the most part.  With the arrival of hordes of gold and silver seekers and the “pioneers”, tensions soared.

Land uses and the allocation of water are continuous themes in the settling of the West and various practices have evolved over time.  The current drought, massive fires, and changing energy policies all have a historical context.  Also, the issues of the southern border need to be seen in the context of the United States taking over one half of the land area of Mexico in 1848.

Patricia Nelson Limerick is considered one of the leading historians of the American West.

Charlestown resident Bill Miller learned to ride and rope at the age of ten while visiting Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and has had a love affair with the American West ever since. He has a background in urban planning and community development.

Janet Neer and Ellyn Loy, Book Review Coordinators