Popular writers and historians alike have perpetuated the powerful
myth of the rugged-individualist single-handedly transforming the
American West. In reality, William Robbins counters, it was the
Guggenheims and Goulds, the Harrimans and Hearsts, and the Morgans
and Mellons who masterminded what the West was to become. Remove
the romance, he shows, and a darker West emerges--a colonial-like
region where "industrial statesmen," aided by eastern U.S. and
European capital, manipulated investments in pursuit of private
gain while controlling wage-earning cowboys and miners.
Robbins argues that understanding the impact of capitalism on
the West--from the fur trade era to the present--is essential to
understanding power, influence, and change in the region.
Showing how global capitalism had a more profound impact on the
modern West than individual initiative, he explores violence and
racism along the Texas/Mexican border; colonial-style company towns
in Montana and the Northwest; contrasting traditions astride the
U.S./Canadian boundary; pace-setting agribusiness and exploitation
of labor in California; the growing power of metropolitan centers
and dependence of rural areas; and the emergence of a sizable
federal influence.
To grasp the essence of the West's dramatic transformation,
Robbins contends, you must look to the mainstays of material
relations in the region--the perpetually changing character of
political and economic culture; the inherent instability of
resources; and the larger constellations of capitalist decision
making. Consequently, he shows shy Western success and failure,
prosperity and misfortune, and expansion and decline were all
inseparably linked to the evolution of capitalism at the local,
regional, national and global levels.
In the tradition of Patricia Nelson Limerick's "Legacy of
Conquest," Robbins's study challenges some of our most revered
images of the West and invigorates the ongoing debates over its
history and meaning for our nation.
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