Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country - by Mark Fiege & Leisl Carr Childers & Michael J Lansing (Paperback)

About the Book

This collection shows that Wallace Stegner's work, however flawed, remains a useful tool for assessing the past, present, and future of the American West.

Book Synopsis

Wallace Stegner is an iconic western writer. His works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angle of Repose and Big Rock Candy Mountain, as well as his nonfiction books and essays introduced the beauty and character of the American West to thousands of readers. Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country assesses his life, work, and legacy in light of contemporary issues and crises. Along with Stegner's achievements, the contributors show how his failures offer equally crucial ways to assess the past, present, and future of the region.

Drawing from history, literature, philosophy, law, geography, and park management, the contributors consider Stegner's racial liberalism and regional vision, his gendered view of the world, his understandings of conservation and the environment, his personal experience of economic collapse and poverty, his yearning for community, and his abiding attachment to the West. Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country is an even-handed reclamation of Stegner's enduring relevance to anyone concerned about the American West's uncertain future.

Review Quotes

"Readers who know the work of Wallace Stegner will find this a fascinating and balanced assessment of his continuing significance in the twenty-first century."--Elizabeth Raymond, Nevada Historical Society-- (1/12/2025 12:00:00 AM)

"Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country does good work in illustrating the contemporary West in all its nuance through the lens of Stegner, and should have broad, interdisciplinary appeal among historians, literary and cultural studies scholars, and social scientists working in the region."--Taimur Ahmad, H-Environment

"Anyone who wishes to understand the history and meaning of the American West needs to read the works of those who have commented most brilliantly on the subject. The authors here have clearly shown why this examination must include the works of Wallace Stegner."--Harlan Hague, Roundup Magazine

"Great writers present us with gifts as well as dilemmas. In this unflinching set of essays by scholars and practitioners of inclusive western history, Wallace Stegner is presented as bearing both. From various angles and social positions the contributors in this enlightening collection examine Stegner's ideas, texts, political commitments, blind spots, and legacies, revealing not only Stegner's mixed impact on American literature and culture but also how his critical vision can spark hope in these troubled times."--Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, winner of the National Book Award

"The contributors to Wallace Stegner's Unsettled County revisit Stegner's work in a critical and thoughtful way that reminds us of the brilliance of Stegner without glossing over his many faults as an observer of the American West. By drawing on inspiration from Stegner's poignant observations, in these essays we find insight into what makes the American West such a complex and compelling region of study. As the authors remind us, only by dealing critically with our past as an unsettled region can we hope to make a better future."--María E. Montoya, author of Translating Property: The Maxwell Land Grant and the Conflict over Land in the American West, 1840-1900

"To this day, Wallace Stegner continues to stand as the greatest writer on the modern American West. Wallace Stegner's Unsettled Country captures his life and prominence beautifully. . . . As the authors ably show, his understanding of the past and vision for the future was based on his lifetime out on the ground in the arid West and his impeccable research into history, literature, and public policy. Stegner's work was perhaps the most single important body of thought during the congressional action of the 1970s that is still the heart of modern conservation policy."--Charles Wilkinson, author of Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West

"Reappraisal is the perpetual destiny of artists and writers, so revisiting the life and messages of Wallace Stegner, the quintessential literary voice of the American West, is inevitable. In a collection that transports Stegner into the twenty-first century, the gifts the famed writer bequeathed us--beautiful expression, insights that can shade into horror, and yet hope for the future--are on display from every contributor. For all who treasure Stegner's prose, his promotion of the art of writing, and his immersion in epic environmental battles, this smart, cutting-edge anthology may be the best book about him yet."--Dan Flores, New York Times best-selling author of Coyote America and Wild New World

"Wallace Stegner was one of the greatest original minds America ever produced, and I think he'd be quietly happy to see his work expanded, challenged, and built on to great effect in this smart volume. It's a very high tribute."--Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

About the Author

Mark Fiege is a professor of history and Wallace Stegner Chair in Western American Studies at Montana State University. He is the author of The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States. Michael J. Lansing is a professor of history at Augsburg University. He is the author of Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics. Leisl Carr Childers is an associate professor of history at Colorado State University. She is the author of The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin.