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The Metahistory of the American West

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The Metahistory of the American West UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2001 The metahistory of the American West Don Franklin Shepherd University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Shepherd, Don Franklin, "The metahistory of the American West" (2001). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2476. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/2ir7-csaz This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while otfiers may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and tfiere are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate tfie deletion. 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THE METAHISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WEST by Don Franklin Shepherd Bachelor of Arts University of California, Irvine 1991 Master of Arts Cal State University, Fullerton 1995 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree Department of History College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number; 3049553 UMI UMI Microform 3049553 Copyright 2002 by ProQuest Information and Leaming Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Don Franklin Shepherd 2002 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dissertation Approval IJNTV The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas NOVEMBER 6 _,2001 The Dissertation prepared by DON FRANKLIN SHEPHERD Entitled THE METAHISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WEST is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY__________________ Examination Committee Chair Dean o f the Graduate College Examination Committee Member '.ommittu^ember mate ^ le g e Faculty Representati} u Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The Metahistory of the American West by Don Franklin Shepherd Dr. Vernon Mattson, Examination Committee Chair Professor of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner published his famous thesis, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” The thesis, as well as his subsequent writings, established the groundwork for the dialogue on the American West That groundwork essentially captured western history as the relationship between seen and unseen forces. Implicit in Turner’s work was a structural model for how visible and invisible worlds interacted with one another. When one examines the work of later scholars like Henry Nash Smith who shifted away from Turner’s synthesis, it becomes apparent that there was more underpinning Smith’s dissent than simply a disagreement regarding historical facts. What had actually changed was the structural model for how the two worlds intermingled. This paradigm shift for the dialectic between seen and unseen forces was at the root of the move away from Turner. The new paradigm was entirely incompatible with Turner’s model. In time, the new paradigm was adapted as the structural model for what eventually emerged as the New Western history. But in the same way that Henry Nash Smith represented the bridge between two historical era, so too did New Western iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. history. In fact, it signified an ending as well as a beginning. While its adherents still relied on the ironic emphasis in Smith’s structural model, they also, step by step, shifted back into a metaphorical mode of explanation that came more and more to resemble Turner’s discarded paradigm. With metaphor and irony embroiled in an acute struggle for intellectual dominance, it was only a matter of time before a full-blown neo-Tumerian revolution would be well underway. IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................. vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 1 How Ifistorians Can Talk About Unseen Forces.........................................................5 The Dialectic in American West H istory ................................................................ 18 CHAPTER 2 THE HISTORIANS......................................................................... 30 From Turner to neo-Tumerian ................................................................................32 CHAPTER 3 THESIS............................................................................................67 Frederick Jackson T urner ......................................................................................... 69 CHAPTER 4 ANTITHESIS..................................................................................100 Henry Nash Sm ith .................................................................................................. 103 Donald W orster ...................................................................................................... 122 CHAPTERS A NEW SYNTHESIS.................................................................. 160 William Cronon ........................................................................................................163 Richard W hite ......................................................................................................... 179 Elliott W est............................................................................................................. 196 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION............................................................................... 214 Patricia Limerick and "Tumerians All” .................................................................. 215 Carl Becker and the “Heavenly City” ..................................................................... 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................232 VITA ............................................................................................................................245 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No man is an island unto himself. No great work is the product of a single mind. In acknowledgment, it was Dr. Hal Rothman who suggested the possibility of an emerging neo-Tumerian revolution. That suggestion initiated the search to find out exactly what was the revolution. Subsequently, it was Dr. Colin Loader who guided me through the writings of Hayden White and Keimeth Burke to undergird the entire structure of the project with a legitimate model for my findings. Dr. Loader was a student of Hayden White’s during the time when White was writing his Metahistorv I have benefited greatly from Dr. Loader’s insights, but the final rendering of White’s views has rested solely with myself. If there
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