Over the course of the 19th century, what is known as the American West came into being. Megan Kate Nelson, a Pulitzer Prize–finalist in History, examines how various communities grew and flourished in the region while at the same time they were erased from a frontier myth that lionized individualism and celebrated white settlers traveling west in search of prosperity.
Drawing on material from her newest book, The Westerners, Nelson surveys the individual and federal actions that created these cultural tensions. She introduces several of its protagonists, including Sacajawea, more than just Lewis and Clark’s guide but an explorer who forged her own path; Jim Beckwourth, a biracial fur trader whose sharp cultural insights made him famous; and the defiant Polly Bemis, a Chinese immigrant who carved out a life in Idaho despite federal expulsion efforts. Nelson also discusses several of the sources she used to write about the lived experiences of men and women who built the American West.
The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier (Scribner) is available for purchase.
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