Making the white man's West whiteness and the creation of the American West Pierce, Jason (Jason Eric) creator JSTOR (Organization) text bibliography Electronic books. History. cou 2016 monographic eng remote 1 online resource (xxv, 296 pages) : illustrations "The West, especially the Intermountain states, ranks among the whitest places in America, but this fact obscures the more complicated history of racial diversity in the region. In Making the White Man's West, author Jason E. Pierce argues that since the time of the Louisiana Purchase, the American West has been a racially contested space. Using a nuanced theory of historical 'whiteness, ' he examines why and how Anglo-Americans dominated the region for a 120-year period. In the early nineteenth century, critics like Zebulon Pike and Washington Irving viewed the West as a 'dumping ground' for free blacks and Native Americans, a place where they could be segregated from the white communities east of the Mississippi River. But as immigrant populations and industrialization took hold in the East, white Americans began to view the West as a 'refuge for real whites.' The West had the most diverse population in the nation with substantial numbers of American Indians, Hispanics, and Asians, but Anglo-Americans could control these mostly disenfranchised peoples and enjoy the privileges of power while celebrating their presence as providing a unique regional character. From this came the belief in a White Man's West, a place ideally suited for 'real' Americans in the face of changing world. The first comprehensive study to examine the construction of white racial identity in the West, Making the White Man's West shows how these two visions of the West--as a racially diverse holding cell and a white refuge--shaped the history of the region and influenced a variety of contemporary social issues in the West today"-- Introduction: Whiteness and the Making of the American West -- Part I. From Dumping Ground to Refuge : Imagining the White Man's West, 1803-1924 -- "For Its Incorporation into Our Union" : The Louisiana Territory and the Conundrum of Western Expansion -- A Climate of Failure or One "Unrivaled, Perhaps, in the World?" -- "The Ablest and Most Valuable Fly Rapidly Westward" : Climate, Racial Vigor and the Advancement of the West, 1860-1900 -- Indians not Immigrants : Charles Fletcher Lummis, Frank Bird Linderman and the Complexities of Race and Ethnicity in America -- Part II. Creating and Defending the White Man's West -- The Politics of Whiteness and Western Expansion -- "Our Climate and Soil is Completely Adapted to their Customs" : Whiteness, Railroad Promotion and the Settlement of the Great Plains -- Unwelcome Saints : Whiteness, Mormons, and the Limits of Success -- Violence in Defense of the White Man's West -- Conclusion: The Limits and Limitations of Whiteness. by Jason E. Pierce. Electronic resource. Includes bibliographical references and index. English. n-usp-- West (U.S.) Race relations History Whites West (U.S.) History Whites Race identity West (U.S.) History British Americans West (U.S.) History Racism West (U.S.) History Cultural pluralism West (U.S.) History Frontier and pioneer life West (U.S.) West (U.S.) History 19th century West (U.S.) History 20th century SOCIAL SCIENCE Discrimination & Race Relations SOCIAL SCIENCE Minority Studies British Americans Cultural pluralism Frontier and pioneer life Race relations Racism Whites Whites Race identity United States, West 1800 - 1999 fast British Americans West (U.S.) History Cultural pluralism Frontier and pioneer life Race relations Racism Whites Race identity F596.2 .P54 2016eb 305.800978 HIS036140 Making the white man's West Pierce, Jason (Jason Eric). Boulder : University Press of Colorado, 2016 (DLC) 2015005246 (OCoLC)915135721 9781607323969 1607323966 9781607325635 1607325632 9781607323952 1607323958 22573/ctt19j6m8t JSTOR http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt19jcg63 COS 160122 20260728172530.3 in00003860519 eng