Book Review: Western Lives: A Biographical History of the American West

Authors

Richmond L. Clow, University of Montana

Date of this Version

2005

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 25:4 (Fall 2005). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

This is an eclectic collection of short biographical essays from the American West grouped from contact to1850, from 1850 to 1900, and from 1900 through the end of the twentieth century. The editor defines the American West as beginning at the Mississippi River and ending on the Pacific coast. His guidelines for each contributor were simple: "to deal with the lives of notable westerners" and "to demonstrate how each of these lives broke from the main currents of the region's history."