Atlas of the New West: Portrait of a Changing Region

The American West looms large in the national imagination as a place of coyotes, cowboys, and wide-open spaces. But with more Americans moving there each year than to any other region of the U.S., the reality of the new West has become somewhat different. What happens when the West of loggers, miners, grizzly bears, and greasy spoons gives way to that of "extreme" recreation, telecommuting, psychic vortexes, and espresso? A group of historians, geographers, and other intellectuals at Boulder's Center of the American West maps these and other transformations in the Atlas of the New West, a stunningly comprehensive look at a region in the grip of tumultuous change.

From irrigation to infrastructure, lifestyle to literature, the Atlas of the New West considers almost every aspect of life in the intermountain West, uncovering some surprising facts along the way. Who would have dreamed, for instance, that a higher percentage of westerners than northeasterners live in cities--or that, if evenly distributed, each resident of Nevada's Eureka County would stand alone on 3.5 square miles of land? Statistics like these come paired with essays, photographs, and beautiful full-color maps depicting everything from brewpub distribution to water consumption to Superfund sites. This handsome and thoughtful book is of vital interest to anyone who cares about this beautiful, fragile, and complex region of the United States.