As early as my undergraduate years at Pomona College I became interested in alternative societies in America, and going East to Yale for master's and doctoral degrees, I wrote my dissertation on utopian colonies in California. The subject began a lifetime study of Western American history with a particular emphasis on new visions of community, a theme which underscored several books. Between these communitarian works, I have followed another interest in the cultural and intellectual images of the American West. Meanwhile, I wrote a general history of the region, a second edition of which appeared in 1984: The American West: An Interpretative History. A third edition was revised with John Mack Faragher of Yale and appeared in 2000. After retirement, I published a more personal memoir, Second Sight, which included some comments on historical scholarship.