Ken Burns The West- 1877 to 1887.

Streaming video - 2015

“Americans aren't wrong in seeing the West as a land of the future, a land in which astonishing things are possible. What they often are wrong about is that there's no price to be paid for that, that everybody can succeed, or that even what succeeds is necessarily the best for all concerned. The West is much more complicated than that."- Richard White. By 1877, the American conquest of the West was nearly complete. For every Indian in the West, there were now nearly 40 whites, and as the Indian wars drew to a close, the last obstacles to American domination dropped away, and the country readied itself to assert control over the entire region. Between 1877 and 1887, four and a half million more people came West. Almost half ...settled on the western Plains, creating new towns in a region once thought too harsh for human habitation: Bismarck and Champion, Epiphany, Wahoo and Nicodemus. Some came seeking freedom, land of their own -- and opportunities they couldn't find in the East, while others found in the West a place to change themselves -- become someone else, to start over. But as more and more Americans arrived, there was less and less room for those who didn't conform. [Navajo boy before and after entering Carlisle Indian School]Indians were expected to change overnight -- to forget their old ways and make themselves over in the image of their conquerors. The Chinese, who had done more than almost anyone to connect the West to the rest of the nation, would be told that they were no longer welcome in the United States. Mexican-Americans were overwhelmed by the newcomers, even in towns where they had lived for centuries. While the Mormons were forced to surrender part of their religion in order to save the rest of it. But even as Americans tried to “tame” the West, they preferred to remember a gaudier version -- full of violence, adventure, and most of all, romance -- a “Wild West.” And yet, between 1877 and 1887, Americans would come to learn firsthand just how “wild” the West could really be -- and that no conquest could ever be complete.

Saved in:
Subjects
Genres
Documentary films
Published
[San Francisco, California, USA] : Kanopy Streaming 2015.
Language
English
Corporate Author
Kanopy (Firm)
Corporate Author
Kanopy (Firm) (-)
Other Authors
Ken Burns, 1953- (film director)
Online Access
A Kanopy streaming video
Cover Image
Item Description
Title from title frames.
Physical Description
1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 86 min.) : digital, .flv file, sound
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).