A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West

• Offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of cultural expressions originating in the west
• Focuses on the intersections, complexities, and challenges found within and between the different historical and cultural groups that define the west's various distinctive regions
• Addresses traditionally familiar icons and ideas about the west (such as cowboys, wide-open spaces, and violence) and their intersections with urbanization and other regional complexities
• Features essays written by many of the leading scholars in western American cultural studies

Keywords: American Literature, 19th Century, 20th Century, African American, Native American, gold rush, cowboys, westerns, Baym, Scharnhorst