"At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the American West is a region of great views and great friction, vigorous economic expansion and equally vigorous social conflict. In Something in the Soil, Patricia Nelson Limerick continues the project she began with The Legacy of Conquest, traveling far outside the usual academic circles in order to bring past and present into a spirited encounter. Whether her topic is the rapid growth in the West today,...

The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality--in hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here she interprets the stories and the characters in a new way: the trappers, traders, Indians, farmers, oilmen, cowboys, and sheriffs...

Representatives from Shell Oil Company, Center of the American West, and Western Resource Advocates talk about oil shale production in Colorado.

The Real West is a joint exhibition of the Colorado Historical Society, Denver Art Museum and Denver Public Library (the Civic Center Cultural Complex).