Showdown in the Big Quiet: Land, Myth, and Government in the American West. By John P. Bieter

Abstract

Showdown in the Big Quiet: Land, Myth, and Government in the American West . American Liberty & Justice Series. By John P. Bieter Jr. Foreword by Gordon Morris Bakken. (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2015. xviii + 292 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95, paper.) Despite being a vast and sparsely populated place, southwestern Idaho’s Owyhee County can reveal broad lessons, according to John P. Bieter Jr. in Showdown in the Big Quiet . The author, a Boise State University historian, deploys compelling stories to explore key themes in western history—namely, the roles of violence, federal government, and myth—with land at the center. Central to Bieter’s analysis is the myth of individualistic pioneers wresting a living from a hostile place and outside factors (e.g., government pressures, market forces, unwelcoming Natives)—an animating force in … asowards{at}uidaho.edu