Elliott West (1945–)

Historian and author Elliott West specializes in the history of the American West. He was a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County). Upon his retirement in 2022 after more than forty years of service, he was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor of History emeritus. Among his many honors are receiving the 2024 Bancroft Award from Columbia University for significant historical works and also being named a 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for History in recognition of his book Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion (2023). The Pulitzer committee described his work as a masterly narrative of “how our nation’s history unfolded across the American West and how the West, no less than the Civil War, profoundly shaped the rise of modern America.”

William Elliott West was born in Dallas, Texas, on April 19, 1945, the second of three sons of Charles Richard West and Elizabeth Ann Page West. Having a father who was an editor for the Dallas Morning News and a brother who was a travel writer, West majored in journalism at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin. After graduating from UT with a bachelor’s degree in 1967, West then pursued graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, later saying he did so because he liked the state. Although he was still planning for a career in journalism, West applied to the history program. When required to choose an area of study, he selected the American West since the University of Colorado did not have a graduate school track for his original choice, the Old South. West received a master’s degree in 1969 and a doctorate in 1971, both from the University of Colorado. From that time forward, his career was centered in history, with the quality of writing in his array of award-winning books attesting to his foundation in journalism.

Early in his career, West taught at the University of Colorado in Denver, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque before settling in at the University of Arkansas in 1979. At UA, he won several teaching prizes and was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor of History. Alongside almost 100 scholarly articles and essays on the history of the American West, he authored nine full-length books on the subject.

The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains (1995) examines the social, cultural, environmental, political, and economic history of the Great Plains, while The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier (1996) offers a look at the role of taverns as part of the social and economic history of the West. In The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado (1998), West explains how the Colorado gold rush was a key event in the transformation of the Great Plains. For that book, he won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians and the Ray Allen Billington Prize from the Organization of American Historians, both in 1999.

The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story (2009) is a look at how that Native American tribe’s previously friendly relationship with white settlers was ended by the discovery of gold on their land. The Essential West: Collected Essays (2012) presents writings by West that range from the subject of bison to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion (2023) won the 2024 Caughey Western History Prize from the Western History Association and also the 2024 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. Continental Reckoning was praised for showing how the creation of the West was integral to the emergence of modern America, why they were closely related, and how neither can be understood without the other.

Two of West’s books focus on children. Growing Up with the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier (1989) and Small Worlds: Children and Adolescents in America 1850–1950 (1992) both illustrate how children were shaped by conditions in the West, growing up with a different perspective about the region than their parents.

In addition to his written works, West has been recognized nationally for his teaching skills at the University of Arkansas, winning the SEC (Southeastern Conference) Faculty Achievement Award; the Charles and Nadine Baum Award as University Teacher of the Year at Arkansas; and Arkansas Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. West has also worked to advance national programs that would bring new approaches and recent research to teaching history in public schools. In 2010, he was a finalist for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, a recognition presented by Baylor University that recognizes the nation’s most outstanding classroom teacher.

West, who received three Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, is a past president of the Western History Association. He appeared in the Ken Burns documentary The American Buffalo (2023), shown nationally on PBS. West and his wife, Rev. Suzanne Stoner, live in Fayetteville.

For additional information:
Anderson, Ryan. “West Awarded Bancroft Prize.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 15, 2024, pp. 1B, 6B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/apr/15/west-awarded-bancroft-prize/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

“Distinguished Lecturers: Elliott West.” Organization of American Historians. https://www.oah.org/lectures/lecturers/elliott-west/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

“Finalist: Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion by Elliott West.” 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History. https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/elliott-west (accessed November 7, 2025).

Lascon, Albert. “A Conversation with Historian Elliott West: Part I.” U.S. History Scene. https://ushistoryscene.com/article/elliott-west/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

“U of A’s Elliott West Wins Prestigious Bancroft Prize.” University of Arkansas News, April 2, 2024. https://news.uark.edu/articles/70001/u-of-a-s-elliott-west-wins-prestigious-bancroft-prize (accessed November 7, 2025).

West, Elliott. Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2025.

Young, Hardin. “The Courtesy to Listen: The Extraordinary Success of Historian Elliott West.” Fulbright Review, University of Arkansas, June 5, 2024. https://fulbrightreview.uark.edu/the-courtesy-to-listen-the-extraordinary-success-of-historian-elliott-west/ (accessed November 7, 2025).

Nancy Hendricks
Garland County Historical Society