-Caveat Lector- from:Linda Minor; ----- from: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~shgape/reviews/br-vanwest.html <A HREF="http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~shgape/reviews/br-vanwest.html">Capitalism on the Frontier</A> ----- Van West, Carroll. _Capitalism on the Frontier: Billings and the Yellowstone Valley in the Nineteenth Century_. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index, xiii plus 281 pages. Reviewed by John Herron, University of New Mexico [EMAIL PROTECTED] For H-SHGAPE, May 1995 (Originally from H-RURAL) Long overshadowed in historical monographs by its more infamous western neighbor--Butte--Billings has failed to garner the attention it deserves as a center of northern frontier development. Carroll Van West tries to address this deficiency by tracing the efforts to turn a hot, tressless, alkali flat in eastern Montana into the "second Denver" of the West. CAPITALISM ON THE FRONTIER is an attempt to place the development of this region into a larger network of market relations and economic transformations that directly linked Montana's largest city to the greater society of the region. Beginning his study with an exploration of the patterns of exchange and barter economies that thrived in the 1870s and 1880s between Native Americans and the early Anglo settlers, West illuminates the successive economic orders that dominated and transformed the Yellowstone Valley. The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1882 displaced this earlier face-to-face exchange system with a market-based economy that mirrored patterns established elsewhere in the westward migration of America's railroads. This incursion of early market capitalism marked the beginning of a significant displacement of native culture with the powerfully manipulative culture of nineteenth-century boosters. Well-known figures of eastern monied interests like James J. Hill, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Villard replaced this localized market system with the final stage in Montana's economic maturation, an impersonal corporate capitalist system that operated on a national and even international scale. The text is focused primarily on the crucial early years of Billings' development--1877 to 1907. Rather than analyze the political forces at work in the Yellowstone Valley in isolation, Van West does an excellent job of placing community dynamics, especially these critically important years of expansion, within the greater scope of western urbanization. Van West successfully illustrates how Billings first struggled with, then adjusted to, the assorted growing pains of economic growth and urban expansion in the rural West. For example, how to attract "proper" community institutions, find sufficient financial support, establish political autonomy, and ensure a profitable and loing-lasting local economy are all issues the early visionaries of Billings faced and each receives extensive attention in Van West's analysis. A certain strength of CAPITALISM ON THE FRONTIER is Van West's ability to show how forces far removed from the Yellowstone Valley affected the development of the Billings area. Local entrepreneurs are manipulated like puppets as decisions made in the banking boardrooms of Boston, New York, London, and Berlin controlled their fate and that of their fledgling city. To this end, Van West's look at the boom-and-bust cycle of Billings' close neighbor Coulson, past over by the railroad despite considerable booster efforts, is especially illuminating. While the author's narrative outlining the development of this region may not be new to those familiar with the history of western community building, the close examination of exactly HOW the process the works is a signi ficant contribution to the larger story of western growth. Van West adeptly illustrates how local Native American groups, speculators, capitalists, and other major players moved on and off stage as the region followed the leading edge of capitalism's progression across the northern plains. The emphasis on economic growth in the Yellowstone Valley is well done, but little is said of the cultural, social, and political institutions that must have accompanied the transformation from river-bottom to city. Adding reference to the social environment in which these changes were occurring would have added another layer of depth to this community and its members. This small criticism aside, Carroll Van West has created a well-written and highly readable text for anyone interested in the histories of urban growth, railroad development, the northern Rockies, and especially, Montana. Return to H-SHGAPE Home Page. Generously Supported by: Comments to Patrick D. Reagan Tennessee Technological University Copyright �1999, H-Net, Humanities OnLine & ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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