Background
Robbins, William Grover was born on September 20, 1935 in Torrington, Connecticut, United States. Son of Dorothy Ellen and John William Robbins.
(Blessed with vast expanses of virgin timber, a good harbo...)
Blessed with vast expanses of virgin timber, a good harbor, and a San Francisco market for its lumber, the Coos Bay area once dubbed itself "a poor man's paradise." A new Prologue and Epilogue by the author bring this story of gyppo loggers, longshoremen, millwrights, and whistle punks into the twenty-first century, describing Coos Bay’s transition from timber town to a retirement and tourist community, where the site of a former Weyerhaeuser complex is now home to the Coquille Indian Tribe’s The Mill Casino.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0295985488/?tag=2022091-20
(Popular writers and historians alike have perpetuated the...)
Popular writers and historians alike have perpetuated the powerful myth of the rugged-individualist single-handedly transforming the American West. In reality, William Robbins counters, it was the Guggenheims and Goulds, the Harrimans and Hearsts, and the Morgans and Mellons who masterminded what the West was to become. Remove the romance, he shows, and a darker West emerges—a colonial-like region where "industrial statesmen," aided by eastern U.S. and European capital, manipulated investments in pursuit of private gain while controlling wage-earning cowboys and miners. Robbins argues that understanding the impact of capitalism on the West—from the fur trade era to the present—is essential to understanding power, influence, and change in the region. Showing how global capitalism had a more profound impact on the modern West than individual initiative, he explores violence and racism along the Texas/Mexican border; colonial-style company towns in Montana and the Northwest; contrasting traditions astride the U.S./Canadian boundary; pace-setting agribusiness and exploitation of labor in California; the growing power of metropolitan centers and dependence of rural areas; and the emergence of a sizable federal influence. To grasp the essence of the West's dramatic transformation, Robbins contends, you must look to the mainstays of material relations in the region—the perpetually changing character of political and economic culture; the inherent instability of resources; and the larger constellations of capitalist decision making. Consequently, he shows shy Western success and failure, prosperity and misfortune, and expansion and decline were all inseparably linked to the evolution of capitalism at the local, regional, national and global levels. In the tradition of Patricia Nelson Limerick's Legacy of Conquest, Robbins's study challenges some of our most revered images of the West and invigorates the ongoing debates over its history and meaning for our nation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700607501/?tag=2022091-20
(Landscapes of Promise is the first comprehensive environm...)
Landscapes of Promise is the first comprehensive environmental history of the early years of a state that has long been associated with environmental protection. Covering the period from early human habitation to the end of World War II, William Robbins shows that the reality of Oregon's environmental history involves far more than a discussion of timber cutting and land-use planning. Robbins demonstrates that ecological change is not only a creation of modern industrial society. Native Americans altered their environment in a number of ways, including the planned annual burning of grasslands and light-burning of understory forest debris. Early Euro-American settlers who thought they were taming a virgin wilderness were merely imposing a new set of alterations on an already modified landscape. Beginning with the first 18th-century traders on the Pacific Coast, alterations to Oregon's landscape were closely linked to the interests of global market forces. Robbins uses period speeches and publications to document the increasing commodification of the landscape and its products. "Environment melts before the man who is in earnest," wrote one Oregon booster in 1905, reflecting prevailing ways of thinking. In an impressive synthesis of primary sources and historical analysis, Robbins traces the transformation of the Oregon landscape and the evolution of our attitudes toward the natural world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0295979011/?tag=2022091-20
Robbins, William Grover was born on September 20, 1935 in Torrington, Connecticut, United States. Son of Dorothy Ellen and John William Robbins.
Doctor of Philosophy, University Oregon, 1969.
History professor Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Oregon, 1969-1971, Oregon State University, Corvallis, since 1971. Advisory committee State Historic Preservation Office, Salem, since 1996. Distinguished professor history Oregon State University, 1997.
(Blessed with vast expanses of virgin timber, a good harbo...)
(Landscapes of Promise is the first comprehensive environm...)
(Popular writers and historians alike have perpetuated the...)
(Book by Robbins, William G., Frank, Robert J., Ross, Rich...)
(Book by Robbins, William G.)
With United States Navy, 1953-1957. Member Western History Association (council member 1997-2000), Association for Environtl. History (editor environmental review 1986-1989), American History Association (council member, pacific coast branch council member 1979-1982), Organization of America Historians (membership committee 1990-1993).
Married Karla Brewer, July 19, 1975. Children: Kelly, Aubrey.