One outcome of this is The Oxford History of the American West . To understand the origins of the 'shootout' and hence the consequences embodied, in part, by the book, a starting point is an examination of the values and concerns of the 'Pat Garrett's' of western history writing and those of the 'Young Guns' . Briefly, there is a well developed Western historiography, commencing in preJeffersonian times, passing on through Turner and his Frontier Thesis to the twentieth century writings of, amongst others, Walter P. Webb, Henry Nash Smith and Earl Pomeroy. All receive some assessment. The Expansion section commences with a chapter emphasising the role of the Federal Government and is followed by one, 'Entering the Global Economy, that takes the argument of the nineteenth-century uniqueness of the American West to task by comparative reference to frontiers in Latin America.
Further chapters deal with aspects of agricultural development, family, religion and violence.
It is this section that becomes a defining one in moving western history forward, as successively the 'Federal Presence', 'Politics and Protest', cities, Alaska and Hawaii, environmental concerns and finally, immigration and minorities are attended to. The final section is a sideways step from broad chronologies and themes, to that of interpretation. This is the shortest, at about 160 pages. It is a statement that any broadly visioned history of the West should be inclusive of visual and literary depictions and that commercial interests have engendered and sustained public fascination. As further departures from more traditional treatments it concludes with a chapter comparing Wests and Frontiers in Canada, the countries of the old Commonwealth and Argentina and Brazil.