Prize Reflections: 2000 Western History Association Published Prizewinners: A Place at the Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2001

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History | United States History

Abstract

Reflections on WHA prize-winning books and essays from 2000.
“Lots of the landmarks are familiar – gender, race, power relations, demography, popular culture – but in a distinctly western intellectual landscape. I don't just mean that these topics are all located in the western part of the United States (they aren't), but in an intellectual landscape particular to western history (and perhaps reflective of the West more generally) that's defined by four main contour lines: Place is Everything; The West is America Only More So; Diversity is Us; and Ideas Matter Here, Too. The central fact of these books and essays is how much they care about place. For western historians place is not only a location. It's an actor. What a good, textured, interesting collection of prize winners. We're lucky to have them in our rich and interesting outpost, no, center, of the historical world.”

Comments

DOI: 10.2307/3650739

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