Search courses · All instructors

HIST 141: History of the American West

History · 5 credits

This course provides an introduction to the history of the place that we now know as the U.S. West. Stretching from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean, the West has both been characterized by its diversity and bound together by a shared regional identity and history. Beginning with the eve of European expansion in the seventeenth century, but concentrating on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course will focus on the historical processes that have defined the West and its place within the United States. Debates over access to land, natural resource management, federal power, racial and ethnic diversity, and the public good are central to western history. Using films, monographs, memoirs, letters, and articles, we will explore the struggles for land, resources, identity, and power which have characterized the West and its role in the nation, as well as the relationship between the western past and the myths and stories that have secured the region’s prominent place in the American imagination.

Offered in 9 of the 26 listed terms (Fall 2021 to Spring 2027).

Catalog entryBrowse ClassesTextbooks (WWU Bookstore)

Prerequisites

None that Banner enforces.

From Banner's catalog for Spring 2027. Banner lists only the requisites it enforces, so check the catalog entry too.

Required by (6)

HIST 356, HIST 363, HIST 366, HIST 383, HIST 451, WGSS 356

Syllabi and course websites

None listed yet.

Suggest a syllabus link

Instructors

Every offering in the listed terms (9 sections)