Annaley Naegle Redd Lecture
The American West and the Making of Modern America
The American West and modern America were historical twins, and like many twins, neither can be truly understood without the other. Between 1845 and 1848 the United States expanded from Texas to the Pacific. Over the next thirty years this vast country, rich in resources and diverse in its geography and peoples, emerged as what we call “the West.” Those same years saw America transformed into the modern nation we would know from then until today. My hope is to show how the newborn West and the new America helped bring one another into being during this crucial time in our history.
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.
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