Western Biographies in Transition

Etulain investigates western biographies in transition. By 1970, even though the region had marched seven decades into the twentieth century, few biographies of the post-1900 West appeared. Undoubtedly the absence of a much-needed historical overview of the twentieth-century West discouraged some biographers. Authors published a handful of biographies on modern politicians and writers but only rarely treated them as western figures. The two most notable transitions occurred in the treatment of western ethnic and racial groups and women. New approaches to Indian topics became clear: the word savage disappeared from western texts; Native Americans were no longer the denigrated Other; and a few energetic historians began incorporating ethnographic details into their biographies of Indian-fighting soldiers and Native leaders.