Description: The American West evokes powerful imagery--warriors on horseback, cowboys in saloons, and pioneers in wagons heading westward. It symbolizes freedom, reinvention, and the American Dream. However, this idealized image obscures the complex, often violent history of the West, which is as unjust as it is inspiring.
Brief description: Dr. William Nester, a Professor at the Department of Government and Politics, St. John's University, New York, is the author of thirty-seven books on history and politics. His book George Rogers Clark: I Glory in War won the Army Historical Foundation's best biography award for 2013, and Titan: The Art of British Power in the Age of Revolution and Napoleon, won the New York Military Affairs Symposium's 2016 Arthur Goodzeit Book Award.