Conveying the power of the new western history with eleven eloquent and graceful essays, Donald Worster moves away from the story of the West as a glorious tale of conquest, Manifest Destiny, and rugged individualism, and leads a new school of historians in presenting western history as an unfolding relationship between man and nature, and the forging of a multicultural society. He provides an introduction to the changing traditions of western historical writing, and then demonstrates his own approach through fascinating case studies, such as the struggle of the Lakota Indians to regain ownership of the Black Hills from the U.S. government, and the history of the cowboy in terms of the new ecology that arose from livestock ranching--the endless miles of fencing, extensive grazing, and the extermination of wildlife because they were considered a threat to sheep and cattle. These essays offer both intriguing insights into important aspects of our history and a new appreciation for the place of nature, native peoples, and struggles over money and power in the western past.