New Westers: West in Contemporary American Culture - Hardcover

Johnson, Michael L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700607633 ISBN 13: 9780700607631

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1996

Synopsis

New Westers refers to men or women - many of whom may have never even ridden a horse - who seek to relive the cowboy lifestyle of the Old West. This work examines the effect of the West on modern American culture, exploring the differences between traditional and contemporary cultural influences.

About this title

Review:

"Provocative, engaging, and well worth the reader's effort."Western Historical Quarterly

"Johnson has produced a fascinating and truly impressive book that anyone interested in the Western United States must read."New Mexico Historical Review

"Break out your favorite cowboy/girl outfit, settle back, and enjoy a delightful ride with the New Westers. Johnson runs the gamut of current Western culturefrom poets, novelists, and historians to singers, dancers, and rodeo riders. Whatever you like about the New West, Johnson has something refreshing to say about it!"Richard W. Slatta, author of Cowboys of the Americas and The Cowboy Encyclopedia

"Illuminating, very well written and easy to read."Tony Hillerman

"A lively, entertaining, and well-written survey of the role of the West in recent American culture that will appeal to all readers."Richard W. Etulain, coauthor of The American West and editor of Writing Western History

"New Westers brings it all togethermovies and fashion, historians and architects, chili-eating and two-stepping. A readable roundup of all of the manifestations of America's most recent flirtation with the West of the imagination."Elliott West, author of The Way to the West

From the Back Cover:

These "New Westers", Johnson reveals, line-dance and two-step, listen to Garth Brooks and George Strait, drink beer from long-neck bottles, wear clothes ordered from Sheplers, watch rodeo on ESPN, play Wild West arcade games, eat fajitas and tacos in stuccoed Mexican cafes, collect Western art and Native American crafts, and vacation in and move to the West. "New Westers" rewrite the history and biography of the West. They reimagine the West in Cowboy sagas and poetry, Native American novels, Mexican-American drama, nature writing, revisionist films, eclectic visual artwork, and neo-traditional music. They flock to movies like Thelma and Louise, Unforgiven, and Dances with Wolves, watch mini-series like Lonesome Dove, and read bestsellers like The Crossing and All The Pretty Horses. "New Westers" are men and women who may or may not have ever hitched up a horse but who crave connection with the West. At the end of a century of urbanization, technological change, and cultural confusion, they seek a more natural home, a fuller and wider sense of place, and a deeper and more colorful personal identity. They also want to revive the dream of the mythic West - but on different terms. They overrun the Old West and yet strive to preserve it, raising troubling new concerns about the differences between the mythic and the real, between traditional and contemporary cultural influences.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0700607633
• ISBN 13: 9780700607631
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 408