Elliot West’s Continental Reckoning is a massive book about a massive topic. West has already proven his ability to treat such topics brilliantly in his earlier works—The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado; Growing Up With the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier; and The Way to the West. He expertly combines economic, environmental, political, and cultural history, weaving each into a profoundly complex and compelling narrative. West is a good historian who knows his names and dates, but he never shies away from taking a larger, more sweeping view of the historical process. In this sense, he is at once mythic and judicious.
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