Limerick asserts how the American West was a mixture between a continuity of America 's past and the legacy it continues to pave. Although the American West was an exciting adventure full of new opportunities, it was the prime example of banishment, racism, and exclusion. This is demonstrated by Limerick’s close analysis of Native American tribes and Mexican Americans. She also observes how the national and state governments operated alongside each other.
She introduces the book by stating how Western history is primarily a perpetual competition for legitimacy, as shown by cultural dominance, shifts property ownerships, and the rest of the nation’s economic dependence on the West’s existence. She first introduces Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, a white woman who was killed while she attempted to teach Native Americans about Christianity in Oregon. When posing a rhetorical question on who …show more content…
She points out, “Western history is a story structured by the drawing of lines and the marking of borders” (55). Property is a constant conundrum in the United States, as wars were previously fought over it. Limerick continues to connect her point on how the West is a relapse of previous American events. In addition, she critically examines the different definitions of property to the various types of people. For example, animal pelts and hides, valuable mineral, cattle, grazing, timber, transportation routes, oil, and water were all considered as property. Moreover, she notes, “Neither the Western past nor the Western present will make sense until attachment to property and attraction to profit fund their proper category as a variety of strong emotion” (76). Limerick is proposing that a sense of property and belonging is critical to all Americans and is not limited to the West, as many historians have previously depicted those moving west as solely motivated by
She introduces the book by stating how Western history is primarily a perpetual competition for legitimacy, as shown by cultural dominance, shifts property ownerships, and the rest of the nation’s economic dependence on the West’s existence. She first introduces Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, a white woman who was killed while she attempted to teach Native Americans about Christianity in Oregon. When posing a rhetorical question on who …show more content…
She points out, “Western history is a story structured by the drawing of lines and the marking of borders” (55). Property is a constant conundrum in the United States, as wars were previously fought over it. Limerick continues to connect her point on how the West is a relapse of previous American events. In addition, she critically examines the different definitions of property to the various types of people. For example, animal pelts and hides, valuable mineral, cattle, grazing, timber, transportation routes, oil, and water were all considered as property. Moreover, she notes, “Neither the Western past nor the Western present will make sense until attachment to property and attraction to profit fund their proper category as a variety of strong emotion” (76). Limerick is proposing that a sense of property and belonging is critical to all Americans and is not limited to the West, as many historians have previously depicted those moving west as solely motivated by