The Mobilized American West, 1940–2000

Writing a sweeping survey of a region as complex as the American West is a challenging task. Findlay has succeeded where few have before. His lively and eloquent narrative details the many types of mobilization that occurred in the last half of the twentieth century, illuminating how the region both carved a distinct path and aligned with the rest of the nation. In his gifted hands, a rich, nuanced portrait of a contested place and its diverse residents emerges. This book will reshape how generations of scholars make sense of the modern West. -Connie Y. Chiang, author of Nature behind Barbed Wire: An Environmental History of the Japanese American Incarceration John Findlay has given us an elegant, clear-eyed survey of arguably the most transformative period in the history of the American West. For Findlay, American regionalism is a slippery but significant factor in the making of the nation. At once erudite and modest, sweeping and nuanced, The Mobilized American West, 1940-2000 is history that matters. Findlay reminds us of the perpetual dance of ideas and actions, people and places, power and resistance, with lively examples of diverse Americans who have made their own histories, for better and worse. -Virginia Scharff, distinguished professor of history emerita, University of New Mexico, and chair of western history, Autry Museum of the American West This is a bold, ambitious, smart, insightful, deeply researched, and fast-paced account of the West from 1940 to 2000. Essential reading for everyone interested in the modern West. -David M. Wrobel, author of America's West: A History, 1890-1950