Institute of Advanced Studies
Don’t fence me in: Barbed wire around the American West
by Dr Ethan Blue, UWA
Date: Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Time: 6pm
Location: Webb Lecture Theatre, Room G21, Ground Floor Geography Building, UWA
(The nearest carpark is P18 off Fairway Entrance 1)
Cost: Free. No RSVP required.
Enquiries: Institute of Advanced Studies on 6488 1340 or iasuwa@admin.uwa.edu.au .
The thin, spindly steel seems innocuous enough until you get too close.
This lecture examines the role of barbed wire in the conquest of North America. A technological development that fenced in the wide open spaces and prairies of the West, barbed wire enabled rapid land privitisation, a shift from indigenous bison ecologies to cattle economies, and spelled the end of the cowboy's frontier dream.
