{"product_id":"back-east-how-westerners-invented-a-region-9780295753867","title":"Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eWestern imaginations of \"Back East\" rewrote America's cultural identity, shaping myths and realities alike\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eJust as easterners imagined the American West, westerners imagined the American East, reshaping American culture. \u003ci\u003eBack East\u003c\/i\u003e flips the script of American regional narratives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn novels, travel narratives, popular histories, and dude ranch brochures, twentieth-century western US writers saw the East through the lens of their experiences and ambitions. Farmers following the railroad saw capitalists exploiting their labor, while cowboys viewed urban easterners as soft and effete. Westerners of different racial backgrounds, including African Americans and Asian Americans, projected their hopes and critiques onto an East that embodied urbanity, power, and opportunity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis interplay between \"Out West\" and \"Back East\" influenced income inequality, land use, cultural identities, and national government. It fueled myths that reshaped public lands, higher education, and the publishing industry. The cultural exchange was not one-sided; it contributed to modern social sciences and amplified marginalized voices from Chicane poets to Native artists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy examining how westerners imagined the American East, \u003ci\u003eBack East\u003c\/i\u003e provides a fresh perspective on the American cultural landscape, offering a deeper understanding of the myths that continue to shape it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eFlannery Burke is associate professor of American studies at Saint Louis University. She is author of \u003ci\u003eA Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFrom Greenwich Village to Taos: Primitivism and Place at Mabel Dodge Luhan's\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Washington Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51603256770834,"sku":"9780295753867","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_36a629d5-62b9-408f-bd59-f8b381e46273.jpg?v=1757431993","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/back-east-how-westerners-invented-a-region-9780295753867","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}