“The West was once seen as a beacon of opportunity, and it is still a place where many ways of life can flourish. But it is also a region that leaves some people isolated both culturally and geographically.” That’s David Kennedy, from his foreword to a collection of essays titled “Bridging the Distance: Common Issues of the Rural West.”
The book is edited by David Danbom, published by University of Utah Press, and in four sections—Defining the Rural West, Community, Economy, and Land Use—the authors highlight factors that set the region apart from the rest of the country and consider the challenges faced by those living in often remote areas, including the shortcomings of rural health care, disagreements about the use of natural resources, conflicts over water, and cultural divides within communities.
Bridging the distance is based on papers presented at an October 2012 conference in Ogden, Utah, sponsored by the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. This conference was part of the Bill Lane Center Rural West Initiative.
David B. Danbom is the Fargo Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Dakota State University, where he taught for 36 years. He has authored six books, most recently “Born in the Country: A History of Rural America” and “Sod Busting: How Families Made Farms on the 19th-Century Plains.”
