The earliest depictions of the American West-in the form of Wild West shows and pulp fiction-held little scholarly merit. It was not until intellectual and native Californian, Josiah Royce, and, bookseller and famed collector, Hubert Howe Bancroft saw the importance of preserving the rapidly vanishing record of their state's early history and other scholars focused their efforts on their own regions that the study of western history was acknowledged as a legitimate and worthy pursuit. Frederick Jackson Turner turned the attention of historians all over the country to the significance of the West in the formation of American character and culture, and his ideas, however disputed they are today, remain the foundation upon or against which subsequent scholars have based their work.
Each essay in the book analyzes the background and work of a single western historian, setting each scholar into the intellectual context of his times and analyzing his contributions and limitations. Etulain's cogent introduction and afterword provide a linking commentary on the individual essays and remind us that the study of history is never static, never isolated from the cultural world around it. Originally published in 1991, this new edition includes a new foreword by historian Glenda Riley.