| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 33.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 33.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Post-Cowboy Economics: Pay and Prosperity in the New American West. By Thomas Michael Power and Richard N. Barrett. (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2001. xx + 185 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, appendix, index. $50, cloth; $25, paper.)

This book challenges the conventional wisdom that the Mountain West depends on natural resources extraction, that environmental laws and other restrictions on land use are strangling the West, and that low-paying service industry jobs are replacing lucrative resource jobs and destroying the West's cultural heritage. The authors argue that this "cowboy economics" is responsible for "fearful, crisis-driven" economic and social policies (p. xx) and prevents westerners "from seeing and managing a quite different current reality" (p. 12). 1

Through copious and informative use of statistics, the authors provide a convincing case for a "post-cowboy" economic model. They examine trends in population, income, and employment in the West since 1980, consider the significance of structural changes in the economy, and relate pay to population size and quality of life. They conclude by offering community leaders practical suggestions regarding what they can and cannot do to promote desirable social and economic policies. . . .

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