Public lands and political meaning : ranchers, the government, and the property between them / Karen R. Merrill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Merrill, Karen R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public lands--United States--History.

Public lands.

Government ownership--United States--History.

Government ownership.

Ranchers--Legal status, laws, etc--United States--History.

Ranchers.

Pasture, Right of--United States--History.

Pasture, Right of.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The history of the American West is a history of struggles over land, and none has inspired so much passion and misunderstanding as the conflict between ranchers and the federal government over public grazing lands. Drawing upon neglected sources from organized ranchers, this is the first book to provide a historically based explanation for why the relationship between ranchers and the federal government became so embattled long before modern environmentalists became involved in the issue. Reconstructing the increasingly contested interpretations of the meaning of public land administration, Public Lands and Political Meaning traces the history of the political dynamics between ranchers and federal land agencies, giving us a new look at the relations of power that made the modern West.Although a majority of organized ranchers supported government control of the range at the turn of the century, by midcentury these same organizations often used a virulently antifederal discourse that fueled many a political fight in Washington and that still runs deep in American politics today. In analyzing this shift, Merrill shows how profoundly people's ideas about property wove their way into the political language of the debates surrounding public range policy. As she unravels the meaning of this language, Merrill demonstrates that different ideas about property played a crucial role in perpetuating antagonism on both sides of the fence.In addition to illuminating the origins of the "sagebrush rebellions" in the American West, this book also persuasively argues that political historians must pay more attention to public land management issues as a way of understanding tensions in American state-building.

Contents:

Policing and policy-making on the range

The properties of the home-builder

The lessons of the market

The sovereignty of the state, or the states?

The Taylor Grazing Act and the "Vast National Estate"

Property rights and political meaning.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-262) and index.

ISBN:

9780520926882

0520926889

9781597348386

1597348384

OCLC:

50667998