Western historians continue to seek new ways of understanding the particular mixture of physical territory, human actions, outside influences, and unique expectations that has made the North American West what it is today. This collection of twelve essays tackles the subject of power and place from several angles -- Indians and non-Indians, race and gender, environment and economy -- to gain insight into major forces at work during two centuries of western history.

The essays, related to one another by their concern with how power is exercised in, over, and by western places, cover a wide range of times and topics, from 18th-century Spanish New Mexico to 19th-century British Columbia to 20th-century Sun Valley and Los Angeles. They encompass analyses of the concept and rhetoric of race, theoretical speculations on gender and powerlessness, and insights on the causes of current environmental crises.

Edited by Richard White and John M. Findlay

Introduction
PART 1: INDIANS AND NON-INDIANS
Coboway's Tale: A Story of Power and Place Along the Columbia
Violence, Justice, and State Power in the New Mexican Borderlands, 1780-1880
Making "Indians" in British Columbia: Power, Race, and the Importance of Place
PART 2: RACE IN THE URBAN WEST
Federal Power and Racial Politics in Los Angeles During World War II
Race, Rhetoric, and Regional Identity: Boosting Los Angeles, 1880-1930
Recasting Identities: American-born Chinese and Nisei in the Era of the Pacific War
PART 3: ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY
Tourism as Colonial Economy: Power and Place in Western Tourism
Creating Wealth by Consuming Place: Timber Management on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest
"Politics Is at the Bottom of the Whole Thing": Spatial Relations of Power in Oregon Salmon Management
Natures Industries: The Rhetoric of Industrialism in the Oregon Country
PART 4: GENDER IN THE URBAN WEST
Lighting Out for the Territory: Women, Mobility and Western Place
Contributors
Index