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Article: An uncertain influence: the role of the federal government in California, 1846-1880.
- Article from:
- California History
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 California Historical Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Did rugged individualists tame the West, or did pioneers merely arrive at a well-ordered colony of the federal government? Popular myth enshrines the first view. In 1991, however, "New" Western historian Richard White, building on more than a half century of research, argued that "The West has been historically a dependency of the federal government." Moreover, he observed, "the West itself served as the kindergarten of the American state," teaching it the governing skills needed to develop a sparsely settled land. In a 1999 article, Karen R. Merrill called on New Western historians to specifically distinguish how federal aid to the West differed from benevolence to other ...