I haven't had any book reviews lately because I've been working myself through something dense and kind of big, which I will hopefully finish sometime this weekend. However, I did take a break from it to read Patricia Limerick's collection of essays Something In the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West. For those of you who don't know, Limerick is one of the people at the forefront of New Western History, which is a 15ish-year-old academic movement to rethinking the American West. Some of the key issues around this rethinking are as follows: what does "frontier" actually mean, if anything?; borderlands, usually with Mexico, occasionally with Canada; urbanization, as the West is the most urbanized region in the country; the role of the federal government, from Lewis and Clark, to Army forts, to Teapot Dome, to Nevada nuclear testing, to contemporary national park management, etc.; Asian and Chicano/a migration (and Chicano/a persistence post-Guadalupe Hidalgo; Mormon history; myths of the "Wild West"; and scores of others.
Limerick's first book, Legacy of Conquest, helped set the tone for New Western History by positing that Manifest Destiny or Westward Expansion should be re-thought as imperial conquest, with all that would imply. It's a deliberately provocative argument, and she makes it in an intelligent, passionate manner.
This book deals with several issues. One is coming to terms with the strengths, weaknesses, and the pure legacy of Legacy, a book which created a professional and public identity for its author that is sometimes at odds with reality. Watching an author grapple with this in print is an interesting exercise in self-reflection. She admits some of the first book's weaknesses--most notably, inattention to the urban West--but more interesting is watching her deal with people thinking she will be a dour, miserable person because she wrote a pessimistic book. Second, Limerick presents some new material in the field, including thinkpieces on Mormonism, John Sutter, and what it means to be a "real Californian". This material attempts to be a bit more synthetic, stressing themes rather than detail, which makes sense since several of these essays are adapted from speeches.
This leads into the third, and arguably most important theme of the book--Limerick continually pleads for academics to engage with "real world" audiences, and in addition to making this plea, she offers her book and its contents as a model for how to do so, and also has a few essays that specifically address the "how to?" question. This aspect takes the book out of its somewhat narrow field and makes it a relevant read for all intellectuals--self-styled and otherwise. Limerick understands the problems here--not the least of which is that academia attracts many people who intentionally retreat from the "real world"--but she presses forward nonetheless, and her advice is practical and provides a guide for both baby steps and giant leaps.
Overall, I'd say that if you're interested in learning what New Western History is all about, read Legacy of Conquest, warts and all. If that doesn't float your boat, but the question of intellectuals "going public" does, then read Something in the Soil. If you're just a fan of good historical writing, read both.