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 others may be from any type o f 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 afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnation Conq)aiy 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS ON THE AMERICAN WEST; 1910-1997 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF ARTS BY MICHAEL R. LOWMAN MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE 12 DECEMBER 1998 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9910368 Copyright 1999 by Lowman, Michael Ray All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9910368 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. College Textbooks on the American West: 1910-1997 Michael R. Lowman Approved: Major Professor Reader Reader Department Chair {/or\k!lSi ^ Dean, College of Graduaj>e^^tudies Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines frontier and western history undergraduate college textbooks published between 1910 and 1997 to determine to what extent and in what manner textbooks reflected the historiographical thought current at the time of their publication. The study is divided into four major time periods: 1893-1930, 1930-1945, 1945-1960, and 1960-1997. Textbooks published in each time period are analyzed in light of the historiographical thinking of their era. Questions considered include: Which textbooks are Turnerian, and which are anti- Turnerian or neo-Turnerian? Which textbooks are chronological, which are thematic, and which take an inquiry approach? Which textbooks deal with the frontier movement and which focus on the West? Do the textbooks conclude at 1890, or do they extend their study into the twentieth century? To what extent and with what degree of comprehensiveness do the books include any persons other than white Anglo-Saxon Protestant males— Indians, women, blacks, Asians, and other ethnic groups? Which books are limited to traditional political and economic history and which deal significantly with social, cultural and environmental history? Generally, the study has been limited to first editions of textbooks. However, in the case of books that went through several editions over a period of years, one or more XX Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. later editions is included so that significant changes can be noted. The study concludes that textbooks on the history of the American West have changed considerably, especially since 1970. Recent textbooks tend to ignore or challenge Turnerian concepts. While they give some attention to America's early trans-Appalachian frontier, they focus on the trans-Mississippi West, carrying the account well into the twentieth century. Recent textbooks deal significantly with social and cultural history, including more information regarding females and minority peoples. By the late 1980s, with the influence of New Western History, textbooks incorporated much information about the environmental consequences of westward expansion, but they excluded many of the characters and events found in traditional textbooks. They also abandoned the chronological narrative, focusing on themes of human and environmental exploitation. XIX Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my wife Dorothy and our daughters Beneth and Joy, without whose support and sacrifice my doctoral program would not have been possible I wish to express appreciation to the members of my dissertation committee. Dr. Andrew Gulliford shared valuable insights regarding America's western history. Dr. Thaddeus M. Smith offered helpful suggestions to improve my writing. Dr. James 0. Huffman provided needed assistance. Special recognition is due Dr. Frederick S. Rolater, who from the first day of my doctoral program proved himself to be a dedicated teacher, a wise counselor, and a helpful friend. The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD. Prov. 16:33 KJV XV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................. 1 Chapter 1. BACKGROUND .........................................11 2. TURNER'S THESIS PROPOSED AND SUPPORTED: 1893-1930 ............................ 23 3. TURNER’S THESIS QUESTIONED AND REJECTED: 1930-1945 48 4. TURNER’S THESIS RENEWED AND REVISED: 1945-1960 ............................... 62 5. NEW DIRECTIONS: 1960-1997 90 New Editions of Earlier Textbooks ............. 99 New Textbooks of the 1 9 6 0 s .................... 112 New Textbooks of the 1 9 7 0 s .................... 121 New Textbooks of the Era of New Western History ...........................144 CONCLUSION ................................................ 162 WORKS CITED .............................................. 176 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Serious historical study of the American frontier and the American West is just over a century old. The romanticism of the West captured the attention of the American people before the Civil War, but scholarly writing about America's westward movement emerged only at the end of the nineteenth century. Beginning in the 1880s the writings of Theodore Roosevelt did much to popularize the history of the American West. Then in 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner stood before the World Congress of Historians and Historical Students and delivered his famous address: "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." Although Turner's speech drew little attention at the time of its delivery, it was soon to change the course of American historiography. Historians soon took keen interest in Turner's thesis, and the significance of America's frontier became a major topic of historical inquiry and debate. The teaching of college courses in frontier history began at the turn of the twentieth century, and by the 1920s western American historiography was at the center of American historical writing. At least by the third decade of this century scholars were distinguishing between frontier history and western history, which gave rise to new controversy. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. During the past century scholarship in regard to frontier and western history has undergone a series of significant revisions. Historians have posed and hotly debated numerous questions about the nature of America's westward expansion and its role in the development of the United States as a unique nation. Over the years the popularity of frontier and western history has ebbed and flowed. As late as the 1980s some historians were predicting that western history was a dying field, but a renewed controversy arose over whether the West can best be understood as a frontier process or as a specific place marked be certain geographic, cultural, and economic characteristics. By the 1990s the significance of the American West was a topic of hot and sometimes intemperate debate among historians. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine frontier and western history undergraduate college textbooks published between the turn of the twentieth century and the present to determine to what extent and in what manner textbooks reflected the historiographical thought current at the time of their publication. To accomplish this goal the study summarized the trends in the development of western historiographical study from the 1890s to 1997. The summary is divided into four major time periods: 1893-1930,