Power & Place in the North American West

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.

John M. Findlay is Professor Emeritus of History at University of Washington. He is the author of People of Chance: Gambling in American Society from Jamestown to Las Vegas (Oxford University Press, 1986); Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Culture after 1940 (University of California Press, 1992); and Atomic Frontier Days: Hanford and the American West, with Bruce Hevly (University of Washington Press, 2011). He has also co-edited three multi-author volumes that had their origins as symposia at the University of Washington's Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest: The Atomic West, eds. Bruce Hevly and John M. Findlay (1998); Power and Place in the North American West, eds. Richard White and John M. Findlay (1999); and Parallel Destinies: Canadians, Americans, and the Western Border, eds. John M. Findlay and Ken Coates (2002).