The American West: no period in our history has defined and shaped us more as a nation. Unique to the U.S., the Old West exerts a power on the American imagination that can still be seen in almost every aspect of our culture. Sadly, as is the case with most other periods, historic acknowledgment of the African American contribution to the West is either totally nonexistent or nowhere near complete. In The Black West, historian William Loren Katz corrects the record in words and pictures, showing that, from the journeys of Lewis and Clark to the charge at San Juan Hill, African American men and women exerted an influence beyond their numbers in the discovery and definition of the American West. - Back cover.