Center of the American West Event Podcast

CU Boulders Center of the American West and National History Day in Colorado, University of Colorado Denver were proud to present noted historian and author, H. W. Brands for his talk: The West & The Growing Pains of Democracy. The early exploration and settlement of the trans-Mississippi West coincided with the birth of American democracy. The West became an arena in which the troubles of democracy were played out. The stakes were the future of the West, and of democracy itself. H. W. Brands was born in Oregon, went to college in California, sold cutlery across the American West and earned graduate degrees in mathematics and history in Oregon and Texas. He taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History. He writes on American history and politics, with books including Heirs of the Founders, Andrew Jackson, and The Age of Gold. Several of his books have been bestsellers; two, Trait