AMERICAN WESTS: PREFACE TO A GEOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Geographers might make a very significant contribution to the interpretation of the American West and of the American nation by a systematic investigation of the West as a set of dynamic regions. The outline offered suggests a focus upon four categories of regional features (population, circulation, political areas, and culture) to be examined as complexes changing through four recognizable stages (nuclear, regional, regional-national, metropolitan-national) from initial European colonization to the present with projections into the future. KEY WORDS: CirculationCultureNational integrationPolitical areasPopulationRegionsStages of developmentWest