Routledge Across the Great Divide: Cultures of Manhood in the American West

Product Description In Across the Great Divide, some of our leading historians look to both the history of masculinity in the West and to the ways that this experience has been represented in movies, popular music, dimestore novels, and folklore. Review "...the collection offers scholars of gender studies and the West a benchmark for future work...[an] important contribution to a broader understanding of the history of gender in the West." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Provocative, engaging and masterful, Across the Great Divide is simply superb. Bringing together essays from distinguished scholars and rising stars, this benchmark collection is an exciting contribution to the study of gender, one that will be read and discussed for years to come." -- Vicki Ruiz, Arizona State University "This path-breaking collection of the best new scholarship on manhood in the American West takes us a refreshing distance across the great divide between myth and history. For anyone who finds real men more interesting than desperados and the Marlboro Man, Across the Great Divide will be an engrossing read." -- Elizabeth Jameson, University of Calgary "These essays make an important contribution to our understanding of how masculinity was constructed and contested in the American West, a process that contributed to a national construction of gender that linked racism, nationalism, and masculinity in complex ways." -- Theda Perdue, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "In this expansive and path-breaking collection, western manhood escapes from all stereotypes. Brilliant essays offer fresh insights into the meanings of manhood for a wide range of westerners from diverse class, ethnic and racial backgrounds. Across the Great Divide examines several great divides: male/female, white/non-white, working class/middle class, east/west. The book is a must for anyone interested in gender, diversity, the west-and great stories." -- Elaine Tyler May, University of Minnesota "Useful insights in this publication." -- American Historical Review "I hope this fine volume will inspire further scholarship and additional collections of accessible essays... (an) important contribution to a broader understanding of the history of gender in the West." -- American Studies About the Author Matthew Basso is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. Laura McCall is Associate Professor of History at Metropolitan State College in Denver, and a co-editor of A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender. Dee Garceau is Assistant Professor of History at Rhodes College and the author of The Important Things in Life: Women, Work & Family in Wyoming.