with elliott west
Doors open 6 p.m. | Talk 6:30-7:30 p.m.
By the popular image, the early American West was a violent land of shootouts in saloons and almost daily clashes between marauding Indians and sturdy homesteaders. Like all cliches, this one is a mix of truth and falsity and everything between.
This talk will suggest how we might begin to unscramble that popular impression. We will take a look at the many forms that violence can take, both then and now, and get some sense of how they compare. We will ask: Just how blood-soaked was the American West, and what can the answers teach us about that place and time that holds such an enduring fascination for so many of us?
about elliott west
Elliott West, alumni distinguished professor of history emeritus at the University of Arkansas, is a specialist in the social and environmental history of the American West and in American Indian history. He is the author of eight books, most recently Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion. Four of those books have received national awards.
In 2009, he was one of three finalists for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for the outstanding classroom teacher in the nation. In 2017-18 he was the Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford. West was a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his most recent book Continental Reckoning and featured in Ken Burn’s The American Buffalo documentary in 2023.