Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

A Note on Terminology

Introduction: Whiteness and the Making of the American West

Part I: From Dumping Ground to Refuge: Imagining the White Man’s West, 1803–1924

1 “For Its Incorporation in Our Union”: The Louisiana Territory and the Conundrum of Western Expansion

2 A Climate of Failure or One “Unrivaled, Perhaps, in the World”: Fear and Health in the West

3 “The Ablest and Most Valuable Fly Rapidly Westward”: Climate, Racial Vigor, and the Advancement of the West, 1860–1900

4 Indians Not Immigrants: Charles Fletcher Lummis, Frank Bird Linderman, and the Complexities of Race and Ethnicity in America

Part II: Creating and Defending the White Man’s West

5 The Politics of Whiteness and Western Expansion, 1848–80

6 “Our Climate and Soil Is Completely Adapted to Their Customs”: Whiteness, Railroad Promotion, and the Settlement of the Great Plains

7 Unwelcome Saints: Whiteness, Mormons, and the Limits of Success

8 Enforcing the White Man’s West through Violence in Texas, California, and Beyond

Conclusion: The Limits and Limitations of Whiteness

Bibliography

Index