WE DON’T CRACK THE WHIP
Global
capitalism and not rugged individualism shaped the West from its
start, writes William G. Robbins in Colony and Empire: The
Capitalist Transformation of the American West. Building on the
work of historians William Cronon and Patricia Limerick, Robbins
charts the loss of local economies across the West and the region’s
increased reliance on world markets. For him, Western history is
best studied as a series of dependencies and a progression of
centralized power – with capital from the East Coast and Europe
fueling exploration and development that benefited the few –
Rockefellers, Guggenheims and Hearsts. Quoting historian Joseph
Kinsey Howard, Robbins, who teaches at the University of Oregon,
characterizes the West as a subject colony, “the end of the cracked
whip.”
University of Kansas Press, Lawrence,
Kan. 256 pages, 1994. $29.95 cloth.
* Chip
Giller
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline We don’t crack the whip.
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