The American West has long played a role in our consciousness as a place apart, a site of perpetual optimism and romanticism. In Imagining the Big Open a wide range of scholars deftly examine our projections upon and uses of the New West--a projection that not only includes how we imagine the West but how we use Western places. Addressing the history, popular culture, geography, and public policy of the region the contributors unravel our collective psyche where SUVs and an REI cards exist in symbiosis with the Wilderness movement and Sierra Club memberships Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.