num_pages: 384
description: In Something in the Soil, Patricia Nelson Limerick travels far outside the usual academic circles to bring Western past and Western present into a spirited union. Whether her topic is the rapid growth in the West today, the patent awfulness of most academic writing, or struggles over the standing of the "Great White Men" of the region’s past, Limerick operates on the principle that history is an active presence in the West, layers of collective memory that are, quite literally, "something in the soil." Enlightening and always witty, combining irreverence for conventional pieties with a grasp of the American West's long history as a magnet for dreams of a better life, this wide-ranging collection of essays and arguments from the New West’s landmark historian offers an artful journey into its dramatic past and contentious present."[Limerick's] aim is both to free America's thinking from its Eastern bias and to liberate history-writing from the dry clutch of academic discourse. …Passionate, witty, immensely readable." -- Boston Sunday Globe, "New and Recommended"
language: English
title: Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West
titlecomplete: Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West
genres: History, American History, Westerns, Nonfiction, Academic
ratings_count: 84
publisher: W.W. Norton & Company