business recordsof earlyJapaneseAmerican and white settlers.The historical narrative ismade more compelling with theuse of insets thatfea ture related information.This organization al lows readers to follow the storylinein thenarra tive while reflecting on personal insightsand edi torialsalong the way. The details found infamily stories and business and personal documents make interestingreading.The anecdotes impart a rich feeling for theNikkei community in the White RiverValley. Shirakawa is illustrated with numerous pho tographs documenting early Japanese families, farms, businesses, associations, and community activities.Readers familiar with Nikkei commu nitieswill enjoy seeing these photos andmight recognize some names and faces. For many read ers interested in local history andAmerican his toryingeneral, the immigration story, and issues pertaining to civil rightsand civil liberties,this book will filla gap. Classroom teacherswill find Shirakawa helpful as a reference. Western Places, American Myths: How We Think about the West Edited by Gary J. Hausladen University of Nevada Press, Reno, 2003. Illustrations, photographs, maps. 360 pages. $49.95 cloth. Reviewed byMartha Henderson Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington Winner of the Wilbur S. Shepperson Humanities Book Award for2002,West ernPlaces, AmericanMyths isan engaging setof essays.The promise ofdefiningwestern bound aries and identities isa powerful yeast inAmeri can historical geography.Like amouth-watering campfiredessert, WesternPlaces,AmericanMyths could cap offa dusty day of separating the real from the mythicalWest. Unfortunately,when we get to thebottom of thepan,where a baker's real abilities are shown,we find thatthebottom layer of thisdessert isburned. Every essay iswell written and has a great deal to offerserious scholars ofwestern studies. The book isdivided intothreesections.Historical chapters include Paul F. Starrson the endurance of the ranch as theblueprint of the West, JohnB. Wright on land tenure,and LaryM. Dilsaver on the National Park System.Ethnic diversity is well documented inessaysbyRichard H. Jacksonon the Mormon West, TerrenceW. Haverluk on the Mexican American West, Akim D. Reinhardt on the indigenousWest, and Karen M. Morin on a woman's interpretation of thenineteenth-century West. Considering the West as a region of (mis placed) hope, Pauliina Raento investigateshis torical and contemporary gambling, PeterGoin gives us surreal photographs ofwestern places and people, andDydia DeLyser illustratestherole of ghost towns as historic and contemporary is lands ofpromise. Gary J. Hausladen adds to the examination of thefictional West with his chap teron western films. The concluding chapters returnreaders to idea thatbelief is more impor tant than evidence in the West. It is a delight to bite into each chapter.The knowledge base and intellectualcontribution tohistorical geography by eachwriter are filling.The chapters are excel lentexamples of theuse of the science of geogra phy to separatemythical from real, ifone be lieves such a thing ispossible. Three chapters begin an interestingconver sation aboutmyth. Goin's beautifully published color photographs superimposemultiple images in one frame to capture visions of reality.The photographs are an excellent example of theroles 6i4 OHQ vol. 104, no. 4 of imagined and real thatcombine tocreateviews of the West. Hausladen's chapter on the role of western films indescribing and forging western regionaland national identityincludesperceptive research and an excellent analysis of the role of myth inplace making. DeLyser begins a serious analysis of the significanceofmyth and geogra phyby statingthat"... the mythic West andwhat, for lack of a better term, we might call the 'real' (orhistoric)West have existednot separatelybut rather together,each one helping to create the other... ."(p.276-7). Unfortunately, the other authors add myth as a postscriptto their otherwiseexcellentresearch. There is littlethatexploresmyth,myth-making, ormythic thinkingabout a region or how they affectthenational perception of a region.One of thebest reviewsofhistoricalgeographypublished in recent years appears in the first chapter, "Un derstanding Western Places: The Historical Geographer's View," byWilliam Wyckoff. This excellent reviewarticle should be assigned to ev ery historian who has a taste for things geo graphic.Had thevolume been solely about his torical geography, this chapterwould be essen tial. What isneeded inthisvolume, however, isan equally fine reviewof thepower of myth increat ingplaces, spaces, and regions.Also missing isa concluding chapter thatprobes thecontributors' attempts todeconstruct theirtopics asmythical versions ofwestern regional identity. The book is incomplete without an analysisof theroleof myth in creating and sustainingwestern identityand regional boundaries inAmerican spatial con sciousness. Still, it iswell worth reading for the good...