Land in the American West: Private Claims and the Common Good / Edition 1

by William G. Robbins, James C. Foster

Overview

Throughout the history of the United States, the concepts of “land” and “the West” have fired the American imagination and fueled controversy. The essays in Land in the American West deal with complex, troublesome, and interrelated questions regarding land: Who owns it? Who has access to it? What happens when private rights infringe upon the public good, or when one ethnic group is pitted against another, or when there is a conflict between economic and environmental values? Many of these questions have deep historical roots. They all have special significance in the modern American West, where natural resources are still abundant and large areas of land are federally owned.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295980201
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	10/01/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robbins is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History at Oregon State University. He has published eight books on the Pacific Northwest, including Hard Times In Paradise: Coos Bay, Oregon (Washington), Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000 (Washington), and Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800-1940 (Washington).

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: In Search of Western Lands - William Robbins

PART I: Three Perspectives on Property Rights

Private Property and the Public Interest: Land in the American Idea - Daniel Bromley

Property Rights, Freedom, and Evolving Social Order - Bruce Yandle

New Property Rights Debates: The Dialectics of Naming, Blaming, and Claiming - Sarah Pralle & Michael McCann

PART II: Urban and Rural Vantage Points on Property

Land for Cities, Scenery for City People: Managing Urbanization in the American Grain - Carl Abbott

From Open Range to Closed Range on the Public Lands - William Rowle

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PART III: Three Case Studies of Land Use

Dividing the Land: The Taylor Ranch and the Case for Preserving the Limited Access Commons - Maria Montoya

Public Lands and Public Sentiment: A Comparative Look at national Parks - Arthur Gomez

Owning It All in Alaska: The Political Power of a Rhetorical Paradigm - Stephan Haycox

Epilogue

Contested Terrain: The Business of Land in the American West - Richard White

Contributors

Index

What People are Saying About This

Carlos A. Schwantes

Land is a perennial ‘hot button’ issue in the American West, and this compilation takes the most pressing, and often most controversial, issues to agitate westerners during the past two decades and explains them well.

From the Publisher

"This collection speaks directly to the most vexing political divisions within the New West, from urban and rural frictions to disputes over the management of non—renewable and renewable resources. The authors address an impressive range of issues from philosophical, legal, environmental, social, and political viewpoints."—William Lang, Portland State University

"Land is a perennial ‘hot button’ issue in the American West, and this compilation takes the most pressing, and often most controversial, issues to agitate westerners during the past two decades and explains them well."—Carlos A. Schwantes, University of Idaho

William Lang

This collection speaks directly to the most vexing political divisions within the New West, from urban and rural frictions to disputes over the management of non—renewable and renewable resources. The authors address an impressive range of issues from philosophical, legal, environmental, social, and political viewpoints.

Editorial Reviews

Originally presented at a 1997 symposium at Oregon State U. in Corvallis, these papers contemplate the controversies over land that develop between private claims and the common good. Property rights, rural and urban vantage points, and land use issues are the main themes, with papers discussing individual instances of each in the western states and the larger historical background for each question in the US as a whole. Foster and Robbins teach history and political science, respectively, at OSU; the contributors are academics, a National Park employee, and one graduate student in political science, urban studies, applied economics, and history. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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