Writing Westward Podcast

A conversation with Dr. Janne Lahti about his book The American West and the World: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge: 2019)

Dr. Janne Lahti teaches history at the University of Helsinki, is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow, and the editor of the journal American Studies in Scandinavia. Today we talk about his 2019 book The American West and the World: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge, 2019). Rather than a project based in new archival work, this text is a useful synthetic overview of a variety of topics and drawing from a robust literature of recent scholarship. By offering a brief birds-eye view of ways in which the American West can be viewed through its transnational connections or comparative perspectives, Lahti asks us to take nearly every conceivable "Western" story we know and consider how it likely fit into global contexts that we often overlook. Viewing Western histories as unfolding in tight connection with global worlds promises new understandings of the past, and perhaps more importantly, better understandings of our present globalized Western lives.

Lahti is also the author or editor of:

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A conversation with Dr. James R. Skillen about his book This Land is My Land: Rebellion in the West (Oxford University Press, 2020).

James R. Skillen is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Calvin University. His new book, This Land is My Land: Rebellion in the West was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. Skillen is also author The Nation's Largest Landlord: The Bureau of Land Management in the American West (University of Kansas Press, 2009) and Federal Ecosystem Management: Its Rise, Fall, and Afterlife (Kansas University Press, 2015). Building on these previous works on the history of the federal land management in the West, Skillen has now turned his eye to understanding the recent politics of land management, how certain Westerners have resisted federal oversight and regulations, and how very regional Western debates over grazing permits and local control over land use have melded with national movements against the federal government and increasingly extremist and militant stands against supposed federal tyranny. The growing overlap between those protesting federal land management policies, so-called "patriot" groups, anti-government militias, extreme conspiracy theorists, and white nationalists makes understanding the historical context of their Western elements essential. Unfortunately, Skillen's book is timely and demands attention.

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A conversation with Dr. Bathsheba Demuth about her book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait (WW Norton, 2019).

Bathsheba Demuth is Assistant Professor of History at Brown University. 

Popular and academic organizations have praised Floating Coast in rare fashion. Nature named it a Top 10 book for 2019, NPR, Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, and Kirkus Review named it a best book of 2019, and it was a New York Times "Editor's Choice" pick for the year as well. On the academic side, Floating Cost won the 2020 George Perkins Marsh Prize from the American Society for Environmental History for the best book in environmental history, the 2020 Hal K. Rothman Book Prize for the best book in western environmental history and the W. Turrentine Jackson Book Prize for best first book from the Western History Association, the 2020 Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics from the University of Vermont Foundation, the 2020 Julia Warde Howe prize in nonfiction from the Boston Authors Club, the 2020 William Mills Prize as the best non-fiction Polar book from the Polar Libraries Colloquy, and was a finalist for the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize, an honorable mention for the Rachel Carson Book Prize, and longlisted for the Cundill History Prize.

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A conversation with hiker and author Barney Scout Mann about his book Journey's North: The Pacific Crest Trail (Mountaineer Books, 2020).

Barney Mann, known on the trails as "Scout," is avid hiker, writer, and storyteller. Having completed the 2,650 mil Pacific Crest Trail, the 3,100 mile Continental Divide Trail, both of which span from Mexico to Canada, and the 2,190 mile Appalachian Trail which stretches from Maine to Georgia, he is one of the few in the long-distance thru-hiking world to boast triple-crown status. In addition to putting in miles on the trail and writing about them, he has made significant contributions to the outdoors community by serving as board President of the Partnership for the National Trails System, Board Chair of the Pacific Crest Trail Association, President of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and by hosting, along with his wife Sandy, THOUSANDS of hikers to sleep a night or two at their SoCal home in preparation for embarking on the PCT. Explore more about Mann at his website, www.barneyscoutmann.com.

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A conversation with Sherry L. Smith about her book Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America (Hey Day Books, 2020). Explore more at www.sherrylsmith.com.

Sherry L. Smith is University Distinguished Professor of History (Emerita) at Southern Methodist University. In Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America (Hey Day Books, 2020), Smith tells the story of the interwined lives of Sara Bard Field and Erskine Scott Wood, who were married to others when they met in 1910 in Portland, but negotiated and built a life together on the philosophy of free love, mutual respect for one another, and shared passions for poetry and politics. Smith is a master historian and grounds Bohemians West in expert research, but she gracefully narrates a story with such literary grace that readers might forget the rigorous methodology hiding beneath the surface. Thus, general readers  will be captivated by an engaging narrative of intimately details lives, and historians will rejoice in finding a carefully-researched told with such literary flare.

Explore more of Smith's work at www.sherrylsmith.com. Some is also author or editor of the following titles:

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A conversation with Kenneth F. Dewey, Dan O'Brien, and Larkin Powell about their books in the University of Nebraska Press "Discover the Great Plains" series, Great Plains Weather (2019), Great Plains Bison (2017), and Great Plains Birds (2019).

Ken Dewey is professor emeritus of geography and climatology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He maintains the Lincoln Weather and Climate website and provides a regular Weather segment on local Nebraska radio station, KLIN.

Dan O'Brien is a wildlife ecologist, essayist, novelist, educator and rancher. He runs the Wild Idea Buffalo Company, raising buffalo in South Dakota with eye towards preserving and restoring Great Plains grasslands.

Larkin Powell is professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. His research ranges from quantitative methods for determining wildlife demographics, wildlife and ecology policy and decision make, the environmental histories of Great Plains, and even poetry.

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A conversation with sociologist Justin Farrell about his book, Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West (Princeton University Press, 2020).

Justin Farrell is associate professor of Sociology in the Yale School of the Environment.

He is also the author of The Battle for Yellowstone: Morality and the Sacred Roots of Environmental Conflict, published by Princeton University Press in 2015.

To view the new research on COVID-19 in the rural west, mentioned at the end of this episode, visit www.CovidRuralWest.org.

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A discussion about the late Jeff Metcalf 's book, Back Cast: Fly-Fishing and Other Such Matters (University of Utah Press, 2018), along with a handful of experiences from host Brenden Rensink.

Jeff Metcalf was assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. He was an award-winning essayist and playwright, and an avid fly-fisher.

Sadly, he passed away the very week we were set to record an interview about his latest book, Back Cast: Fly-Fishing and Other Such Matters. Still wanting to share his writings, I restructured this episode to work as best as it could. I share some of the questions I wanted to ask Jeff, read some passages from Back Cast that evoked something in me, and shared a handful of my own stories that Jeff's fly-fishing tales made me think of. It is a bit unconventional and features much more of me than I am usually comfortable with, but I hope it serves as a modest tribute to Jeff's literary work.

Jeff's obituary can be viewed here.

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A conversation with Professor Maurice Crandall about his book, These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1598-1912 (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

Maurice Crandall is a member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation of Camp Verde Arizona and Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of New Mexico and has received multiple honors, awards, and fellowships for his scholarship. Prior to his position at Dartmouth College, Crandall was the Clements Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America at the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, and a Historical Projects Specialist at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1598-1912 was published in 2019 by the University of North Carolina Press in their David J. Weber Series in New Borderlands History.

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