The DOI matches its Crossref record; 76 of the 76 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Virtuous Circle of Facts and Values in the New Western History
Abstract
The relations between facts and values in the writing of historical geography need to be mutual and reinforcing. I explore this point by examining the work of a group of historians who have foregrounded the relations between facts and values. These New Western Historians take up themes such as social justice, regionalism, and environmentalism that have been central to the concerns of historical geographers, but they are more explicit than many historical geographers about both the political motivations behind the questions they ask and their choice of subjects to study. I consider the work of two historians, William Cronon and Donald Worster, who have made environmentalism the core of their historical writing, and two others, Richard White and Patricia Limerick, for whom questions of social justice inform historical interpretation. I conclude by exploring how attention to the interplay between facts and values might rekindle the utopian dimension of explicitly political historical geographies.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“postcolonial scholarship, through contemporary critique, has enabled a turn to history as a source of social justice and alternative possibilities in the present (Bissell 2011; Kearns 1998; Prakash 2000: 221)”
From The Archaeology of Capitalism in Colonial Contexts, an Introduction: Provincializing Historical Archaeology (2011) · cites this paper as Kearns 1998
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy
(2020) · On Violence · doi:10.1515/9780822390169-009 · Cited by 9,870
Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature
McNeil, M., & Haraway, D. (1992) · Feminist Review · doi:10.2307/1395245 · Cited by 6,794
Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference
Mathewson, K., & Harvey, D. (1997) · Geographical Review · doi:10.2307/215233 · Cited by 4,624
The Making of the English Working Class.
Smelser, N. J., & Thompson, E. P. (1966) · History and Theory · doi:10.2307/2504519 · Cited by 4,317
Gender and the Politics of History
Scott, J. W. (1988) · Columbia University Press eBooks · doi:10.7312/scot91266 · Cited by 3,026
The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature
Cronon, W. (1996) · Environmental History · doi:10.2307/3985059 · Cited by 3,016
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West.
Nash, R. F., & Cronon, W. (1992) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/2164941 · Cited by 1,862
Novick, P. (1988) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511816345 · Cited by 1,785
Mouffe, C. (1993) · Cited by 1,493
The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (1844)
(2018) · The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx · doi:10.5040/9781474278737.ch-002 · Cited by 1,432
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
Axtell, J. L., & Cronon, W. J. (1984) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/1856261 · Cited by 1,095
Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics.
Funk, N., & Benhabib, S. (1994) · The Philosophical Review · doi:10.2307/2185801 · Cited by 1,017
Gunfighter nation: the myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America
(1993) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.30-5220 · Cited by 976
Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas
Worster, D. (1977) · Cited by 763
Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth
(1955) · Nature · doi:10.1038/175754c0 · Cited by 705
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815
Satz, R. N., & White, R. (1993) · Journal of the Early Republic · doi:10.2307/3124354 · Cited by 695
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Engels, F. (2010) · The Two Narratives of Political Economy · doi:10.1002/9781118011690.ch25 · Cited by 636
Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West
Rakestraw, L., & Worster, D. (1987) · The Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/969098 · Cited by 636
A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative
Cronon, W. J. (1999) · The Geojournal library · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-2392-3_14 · Cited by 627
The Legacy of Conquest: the Unbroken Past of the American West
(1991) · The Annals of Iowa · doi:10.17077/0003-4827.9557 · Cited by 488
Fite, G. C., & Worster, D. (1980) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/1855110 · Cited by 420
Critique, Norm and Utopia. A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory.
Jurist, E. L., & Benhabib, S. (1989) · The Journal of Philosophy · doi:10.2307/2026962 · Cited by 417
Buried Epistemologies: The Politics of Nature in (Post)colonial British Columbia
Braun, B. W. (1997) · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · doi:10.1111/0004-5608.00039 · Cited by 406
History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past.
Fahs, A., Nash, G. B., Crabtree, C. A., & Dunn, R. E. (2000) · The Journal of Southern History · doi:10.2307/2587498 · Cited by 356
Growth Recurring: Economic Change in World History.
McNicoll, G., & Jones, Ε. L. (1989) · Population and Development Review · doi:10.2307/1973711 · Cited by 333
Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America
Hughes, R. G. (1993) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 303
"It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West
Riley, G., & White, R. (1992) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/970446 · Cited by 269
Ecological revolutions: nature, gender, and science in New England
(1990) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.27-5187 · Cited by 267
The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History
Axtell, J. L., & Meinig, D. W. (1988) · The William and Mary Quarterly · doi:10.2307/1922224 · Cited by 254
Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History
Worster, D. (1990) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2936586 · Cited by 250
Harries, K. D., & Smith, D. M. (1995) · Geographical Review · doi:10.2307/215291 · Cited by 221
The nature of metaphors in cultural geography and environmental history
Demeritt, D. (1994) · Progress in Human Geography · doi:10.1177/030913259401800203 · Cited by 164
McWilliams, C. (2000) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520925182 · Cited by 161
Clifton, J. A., & White, R. G. (1985) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/1852806 · Cited by 160
It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own
White, R. (1991) · Cited by 160
The Ecology of Order and Chaos
Worster, D. (1990) · Environmental History Review · doi:10.2307/3984623 · Cited by 159
Harris, R. (1994) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.1994.tb00245.x · Cited by 149
Stegner, W. (1945) · Cited by 138
American Environmental History: The Development of a New Historical Field
White, R. (1985) · Pacific Historical Review · doi:10.2307/3639634 · Cited by 135
Ecology, objectivity and critique in writings on nature and human societies
Demeritt, D. (1994) · Journal of Historical Geography · doi:10.1006/jhge.1994.1003 · Cited by 117
Trails: Toward a New Western History
Hoganson, K. (2017) · The SHAFR Guide Online · doi:10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim030040010 · Cited by 117
Plausible Worlds; Possibility and Understanding in History and the Social Sciences.
Fain, H., & Hawthorn, G. (1993) · History and Theory · doi:10.2307/2505331 · Cited by 113
Modes of Prophecy and Production: Placing Nature in History
Cronon, W. J. (1990) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2936590 · Cited by 111
The relations of environmental history and historical geography
Williams, M. (1994) · Journal of Historical Geography · doi:10.1006/jhge.1994.1002 · Cited by 110
Tribe, K. P. (1981) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-349-04731-4 · Cited by 106
“Marx's Capital and Capitalism Today”
(1979) · doi:10.1177/030981687900700105 · Cited by 102
Nostrand, R. L. (1980) · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1980.tb01321.x · Cited by 101
From Market-Places to a Market Economy: The Transformation of Rural Massachusetts, 1750-1850
Lemon, J. T., & Rothenberg, W. B. (1995) · The Journal of Interdisciplinary History · doi:10.2307/205737 · Cited by 97
White, R. (1978) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/1894083 · Cited by 88
Western Times and Water Wars: State, Culture, and Rebellion in California
Sherow, J. E., & Walton, J. (1992) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/970311 · Cited by 83
Gender and Environmental History
Merchant, C. (1990) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2936589 · Cited by 73
Diamond, H., & Noonan, P. (1996) · Cited by 70
Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, Washington
Runte, A., & White, R. G. (1981) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/3556602 · Cited by 69
THEORY AND ESSENTIALISM IN MARXIST GEOGRAPHY
Graham, J. (1990) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.1990.tb00197.x · Cited by 63
Taking Aim at the Heart of the Region
Thrift, N. J. (1994) · doi:10.1007/978-1-349-23638-1_8 · Cited by 62
To reclaim a divided west: water, law, and public policy, 1848-1902
(1993) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.30-4020 · Cited by 59
Environmental History, Ecology, and Meaning
White, R. (1990) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2936588 · Cited by 57
Bakunin, M. A. (2012) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139168083.006 · Cited by 56
An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians
Dalstrom, H. A., & Wishart, D. J. (1996) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/969933 · Cited by 45
Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill
White, R. (2019) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520915329-003 · Cited by 43
Kay, J. (1991) · Journal of Historical Geography · doi:10.1016/0305-7488(91)90026-r · Cited by 37
Discovering Nature in North America
White, R. (1992) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2080791 · Cited by 36
Lessons in Conquest: Towards a Greater Western History
Aron, S. (1994) · Pacific Historical Review · doi:10.2307/3640863 · Cited by 33
(1974) · The Annals of Iowa · doi:10.17077/0003-4827.11201 · Cited by 29
The Political Context of a New Indian History
Berkhofer, R. F. (1971) · Pacific Historical Review · doi:10.2307/3638362 · Cited by 29
Dancing with professors: The trouble with academic prose
Limerick, P. N. (1993) · The New York times book review · Cited by 27
Disorientation and Reorientation: The American Landscape Discovered from the West
Limerick, P. N. (1992) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2080797 · Cited by 27
Desert Passages: Encounters with the American Deserts
Starr, K., & Limerick, P. N. (1986) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/969019 · Cited by 26
Worster, D. (1990) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2936592 · Cited by 24
"The Legacy of Conquest", by Patricia Nelson Limerick: A Panel of Appraisal
Worster, D., Armitage, S., Malone, M. P., Weber, D. J., & Limerick, P. N. (1989) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/969537 · Cited by 19
Haunted by Rhyolite: Learning from the Landscape of Failure
Limerick, P. N., & Klett, M. (1992) · American Art · doi:10.1086/424167 · Cited by 10
The Case of the Premature Departure: The Trans-Mississippi West and American History Textbooks
Limerick, P. N. (1992) · Journal of American History · doi:10.2307/2079348 · Cited by 8
Kearns, G. (1984) · Journal of Historical Geography · doi:10.1016/0305-7488(84)90074-4 · Cited by 5
Self-citationWorster, D. (1994) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780195092646.003.0004 · Cited by 3
Closed space and political practice: Halford Mackinder and Frederick Jackson Turner
Kearns, G. (1984) · Maynooth University ePrints and eTheses Archive (Maynooth University) · Cited by 3
Self-citationREVIEW OF WILLIAM CRONON'S NATURE'S METROPOLIS
Saunders, R. H., & Marston, S. A. (1994) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.1994.tb00239.x · Cited by 2
Research works printed but not linked: 38
- Bogue, A. G. 1994. An Agricultural Empire. In The Oxford History of the American West , ed. C. A. Milner II, C. A. O'Connor, and M. Sandweiss, pp. 275-313. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ---. 1994b. Cutting Loose or Running Aground? Journal of Historical Geography 20:38-43.
- Cronon, W .; Miles, G.; and Gitlin, J. 1992. Becoming West: T oward a New Meaning for W estern History. In Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America's Western Past , ed. W. Cronon, G. Miles, and J. Gitlin, pp. 3-27. New Y ork: W . W . Norton & Co.
- Gulliford, A. 1992. Exhibition Review. The W est as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. Journal of American History 79:199-208.
- Holthaus, G.; Limerick, P . N.; and Wilkinson, C. F . 1991. Introduction. In A Society to Match the Scenery: Personal Visions of the Future of the American West , ed. G. Holthaus, P . N. Limerick, C. F . Wilkinson, and E. S. Munson, pp. 3-10. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
- Kay, J. 1989. Western Women's History. Journal of Historical Geography 15:302-05.
- ---. 1990. The Future of Historical Geography in the United States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 80:618-21.
- ---. 1991b. Persistent T raits and the Persistent Historian: the American Frontier and Ray Allen Billington. In Writing Western History: Essays on Major Western Historians , ed. R. W . Etulain, pp. 277-310. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
- ---. 1991c. What on Earth Is the New Western History? In Trails: T oward a New W estern History , ed. P . N. Limerick, C. A. Milner II, and C. E. Rankin, pp. 81-88. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
- ---. 1991d. Progress or Decline? Judging the History of W estern Expansion. In A Society to Match the Scenery: Personal Visions of the Future of the American West , ed. G. Holthaus, P . N. Limerick, C. F . Wilkinson, and E. S. Munson, pp. 43-50. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
- ---. 1992a. The Multicultural Islands. American Historical Review 97:121-35.
- ---. 1992b. Second Views and Second Thoughts: Mark Klett and the Re-Exploration of the American West. In Revealing T erritory: Photographs of the Southwest by Mark Klett , M. Klett, pp. 7-110. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
- ---. 1992d. Making the Most of Words: Verbal Activity and W estern America. In Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America's Western Past , ed. W. Cronon, G. Miles, and J. Gitlin, pp. 167-84. New York: W . W . Norton & Co.
- Limerick, P .; Milner , C. A.; and Rankin, C. E. 1991. Preface. In Trails: T oward a New Western History , ed. P . N. Limerick, C. A. Milner II, and C. E. Rankin, pp. ix-xv. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
- Marx, K. 1974a[1894]. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol. 3. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
- ---. 1975[1844]. Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. In Early Writings , K. Marx, pp. 279-400. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin Books.
- Meinig, D.W . 1986. The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Y ears of History, vol. 1: Atlantic America, 1492-1800 . New Haven, CT : Yale University Press.
- Nostrand, R. L. 1992. TheHispanoHomeland . Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
- Novick, P . 1988. The Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity' Question and the American Historical Profession . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Philo, C., and Kearns, G. 1992. Culture, History, Capital: A Critical Introduction to the Selling of Places. In Selling Places: The City as Cultural Capital, P ast and Present , pp. 1-32. London: Pergamon.
- Rawls, J. 1972. A Theory of Justice . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Rose, G. 1991. Book Review: D. Harvey, Condition of Postmodernity , and E. Soja, Postmodern Geographies. Journal of Historical Geography 17:118-21.
- Rudnik, L. 1987. Re-naming the Land: Anglo Expatriate Women in the Southwest. In The Desert Is No Lady: Southwestern Landscapes in Women's Writing and Art , ed. V . Norwood and J. Monk, pp. 10-26. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Szasz, F . M., and Szasz, M. C. 1994. Religion and Spirituality. In The Oxford History of the American West , ed. C. A. Milner II, C. A. O'Connor, and M.
- White, R. 1978. The Winning of the W est: The Expansion of the W estern Sioux in the Eighteenth and NineteenthCenturies. Journal of American History 65:319-43.
- ---. 1980. Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, W ashington . Seattle: University of W ashington Press.
- ---. 1988. Frederick Jackson T urner. In Historians of the American Frontier , ed. J. R. Wunder, pp. 660-81. New York: Greenwood Press.
- ---. 1991c. Trashing the T rails. In Trails: T oward a New Western History , ed. P . N. Limerick, C. A. Milner, and C. E. Rankin, pp. 26-39. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
- ---. 1992a. Preface to the 1992 Edition. In Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, W ashington , 2nd ed., R. White, pp. xvii-xix. Seattle: University of Washington Press..
- ---. 1995. 'Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?': W ork and Nature. In Uncommon Ground: T oward Reinventing Nature , ed. W. Cronon, pp. 171-85. New York: W . W . Norton & Co.
- Wishart, D. 1994. AnUnspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians . Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
- ---. 1997. The Selectivity of Historical Presentation. Journal of Historical Geography 23:111-18.
- Wittfogel, K. 1957. Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of T otal Power . NewHaven,CT : Yale University Press.
- Wolff, R. D., and Resnick, R. S. 1987. Economics: Marxian vs. Neoclassical . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ---. 1979. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ---. 1992a. Cowboy Ecology. In Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American W est , D. Worster, pp. 34-52. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ---. 1992c. A Country without Secrets. In Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West , D. Worster, pp. 238-54. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Yeo, S. 1980. State and Anti-State: Reflections on Social Forms and Struggles from 1850. In Capitalism, State Formation and Marxist Theory , ed. P . Corrigan, pp. 111-41. London: Quartet Books.
Cited by
Croucher, S. K., & Weiss, L. (2011) · Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology · doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0192-6_1 · Cited by 20
Metadata
- Authors
- Kearns, G.
- Venue
- Annals of the Association of American Geographers
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 1998-09
- Volume
- 88
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 377-409
- ISSN
- 0004-5608
- 1467-8306
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 76
- Language
- en
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.