{"id":23329,"date":"2019-05-26T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=23329"},"modified":"2019-05-26T17:22:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T21:22:25","slug":"whites-in-the-american-west-were-settlers-or-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/26\/whites-in-the-american-west-were-settlers-or-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Whites in the American West were settlers or migrants?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s a book cover that shocked me at the San Diego airport:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23330\" width=\"405\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4.png 854w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4-201x300.png 201w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4-686x1024.png 686w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/image-4-768x1147.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2K5bNvu\">The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West<\/a><\/em> bears a subtitle that makes me wonder how many Native Americans would agree that the white-skinned folks from the East were &#8220;settlers&#8221; (the land wasn&#8217;t already settled? Shouldn&#8217;t they be called &#8220;migrants&#8221;, &#8220;invaders&#8221;, or &#8220;immigrants&#8221;?) and\/or were bringing &#8220;the American ideal&#8221; (but maybe the &#8220;ideal&#8221; included killing and displacing the natives?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How did this one get through a major publishing house?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who has read this book? I&#8217;m a huge fan of this author&#8217;s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WuaexM\">The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Separately, here&#8217;s the first photo that I took after arriving in California:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6421.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6421-e1558837127335-1520x1520.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23332\" width=\"326\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6421-e1558837127335-1520x1520.jpg 1520w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6421-e1558837127335-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6421-e1558837127335-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/IMG_6421-e1558837127335-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a book cover that shocked me at the San Diego airport: The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West bears a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-history"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Whites in the American West were settlers or migrants? 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