
Oral History, Community, and Work in the American West
Jessie L. Embry(Editor)
University of Arizona Press
2nd Edition
Will be published approx. on 30. October 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
360 pages
978-0-8165-3017-5 (ISBN)
Description
Nurses, show girls, housewives, farm workers, casino managers, and government inspectors-together these hard-working members of society contributed to the development of towns across the West. The essays in this volume show how oral history increases understanding of work and community in the twentieth century American West.
In many cases occupations brought people together in myriad ways. The Latino workers who picked lemons together in Southern California report that it was baseball and Cinco de Mayo Queen contests that united them. Mormons in Fort Collins, Colorado, say that building a church together bonded them together. In separate essays, African Americans and women describe how they fostered a sense of community in Las Vegas. Native Americans detail the "Indian economy" in Northern California.
As these essays demonstrate, the history of the American West is the story of small towns and big cities, places both isolated and heavily populated. It includes groups whose history has often been neglected. Sometimes, western history has mirrored the history of the nation; at other times, it has diverged in unique ways. Oral history adds a dimension that has often been missing in writing a comprehensive history of the West. Here an array of oral historians-including folklorists, librarians, and public historians-record what they have learned from people who have, in their own ways, made history.
In many cases occupations brought people together in myriad ways. The Latino workers who picked lemons together in Southern California report that it was baseball and Cinco de Mayo Queen contests that united them. Mormons in Fort Collins, Colorado, say that building a church together bonded them together. In separate essays, African Americans and women describe how they fostered a sense of community in Las Vegas. Native Americans detail the "Indian economy" in Northern California.
As these essays demonstrate, the history of the American West is the story of small towns and big cities, places both isolated and heavily populated. It includes groups whose history has often been neglected. Sometimes, western history has mirrored the history of the nation; at other times, it has diverged in unique ways. Oral history adds a dimension that has often been missing in writing a comprehensive history of the West. Here an array of oral historians-including folklorists, librarians, and public historians-record what they have learned from people who have, in their own ways, made history.
More details
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Tucson
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
18 photographs
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8165-3017-5 (9780816530175)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jessie L. Embry is the associate director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University, USA. She was a member of the first oral history class sponsored by the Redd Center in 1973 and became the director of the oral history program in 1979. She has written several books, including Mormons & Polygamy (Setting the Record Straight) and Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African American Mormons, and is co-editor of Utah in the Twentieth Century.