Michael Cassity: Links to Publications / Studies
The following works that I have prepared have been published by others on the World Wide Web. A few of them require subscriptions to access, but most are freely available and can be read or downloaded from the sites where they are posted. Please note that clicking on the links takes you out of this site and onto other sites where I have no control or special access.
Wyoming Ranching, Farming, and Homesteading
Wyoming Will Be Your New Home . . .: Ranching, Farming, and Homesteading in Wyoming, 1860-1960 (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, 2011). Available online for free PDF download and is available from the Wyoming State Historic Preservation as a free PDF download at http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/homestead/pdf/historic_context_study_011311.pdf.
Lives Worth Living, History Worth Preserving: A Brief History of Wyoming Homesteading, Ranching, and Farming, 1860-1960 http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/homestead/pdf/brief_narrative_072410.pdf
See also the website, designed and assembled for me by Rebecca Cassity and Russ Anderson, for the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office which includes the above two items as well as other guides and information: http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/homestead/index.html
Another Wyoming homesteading / ranching study, one that I drew upon in my subsequent state-wide analysis, was “Stock-Raising, Ranching, and Homesteading in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming.” It can be found at:
http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/pdf/powderriverhc2007.pdf
The Practice of History
In “History and the Public Purpose” I urged historians to address issues of public importance and to do so with broad audiences in mind. This article can be found in print at Michael Cassity, “History and the Public Purpose,” The Journal of American History, Vol. 81, No. 3, The Practice of American History: A Special Issue (Dec., 1994), pp. 969-976. It can be read online but requires a subscription to access.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2081436?uid=3739848&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56292820473
Many historians, not all of them consciously, draw upon a general formulation of modernization in examining American history, and I used a case study to raise questions about the adequacy of that conceptualization. As it turns out, far from being an automatic, popular, and unthinking response to industrialization, modernization has been seriously challenged and resisted. See my essay, “Modernization and Social Crisis: The Knights of Labor and a Midwest Community, 1885-1886,” The Journal of American History, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jun., 1979), pp. 41-61. It also requires a subscription to access.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1894673?uid=3739848&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56292820473
U.S. Route 66 and History
U.S. Highway 66, sometimes known as Route 66, was a critical avenue of transportation and commerce and its evolution over time provides a powerful microcosm into the forces transforming the United States in the twentieth century. While some see in it a subject of romance and nostalgia, the road offers an opportunity to examine the transformation of life in America. There is much more to be learned from this road and more to be written about it. The following are beginning points.
Route 66 in the United States. This is a historic context study for U.S. Route 66 I prepared for the National Park Service in 2004: historic context study for U.S. Route 66. That study subsequently served as the core of the Multiple Property Document for nominating Route 66 related resources to the National Register of Historic Places. That document, of which I am co-author, can be found at: http://www.nps.gov/rt66/HistSig/NationalMPDF.pdf
This is a study I prepared of Route 66 in Oklahoma:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=20&ved=0CFYQFjAJOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.okhistory.org%2Fshpo%2Fthematic%2Frt66hr26-70.pdf&ei=g8j1T_vZCemY2wXW5vjJBg&usg=AFQjCNH0b7RBbyiv9utoyK6x9TNR0146bg
And this is a brief narrative of Route 66 in Oklahoma, I prepared for the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/R/RO037.html
Historic Preservation
See also my “Touching the Past in Wyoming,” Foreword to On the Road to Preservation: Wyoming’s Comprehensive Statewide Historic Preservation Plan, 2007-2013 (Cheyenne, Wyoming: State Historic Preservation Office, 2007). Available on the World Wide Web at http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/Preservation/PreservationPlan.pdf
Murie Ranch Historic District, National Historic Landmark Nomination:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CFYQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpdfhost.focus.nps.gov%2Fdocs%2FNHLS%2FText%2F98001039.pdf&ei=hMv1T-zVI6H20gGet6n7Bg&usg=AFQjCNFk5y7bw2dZl3mqxokpLsXwoHn-cQ
Wyoming Ranching, Farming, and Homesteading
Wyoming Will Be Your New Home . . .: Ranching, Farming, and Homesteading in Wyoming, 1860-1960 (Cheyenne: Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office, 2011). Available online for free PDF download and is available from the Wyoming State Historic Preservation as a free PDF download at http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/homestead/pdf/historic_context_study_011311.pdf.
Lives Worth Living, History Worth Preserving: A Brief History of Wyoming Homesteading, Ranching, and Farming, 1860-1960 http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/homestead/pdf/brief_narrative_072410.pdf
See also the website, designed and assembled for me by Rebecca Cassity and Russ Anderson, for the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office which includes the above two items as well as other guides and information: http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/homestead/index.html
Another Wyoming homesteading / ranching study, one that I drew upon in my subsequent state-wide analysis, was “Stock-Raising, Ranching, and Homesteading in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming.” It can be found at:
http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/pdf/powderriverhc2007.pdf
The Practice of History
In “History and the Public Purpose” I urged historians to address issues of public importance and to do so with broad audiences in mind. This article can be found in print at Michael Cassity, “History and the Public Purpose,” The Journal of American History, Vol. 81, No. 3, The Practice of American History: A Special Issue (Dec., 1994), pp. 969-976. It can be read online but requires a subscription to access.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2081436?uid=3739848&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56292820473
Many historians, not all of them consciously, draw upon a general formulation of modernization in examining American history, and I used a case study to raise questions about the adequacy of that conceptualization. As it turns out, far from being an automatic, popular, and unthinking response to industrialization, modernization has been seriously challenged and resisted. See my essay, “Modernization and Social Crisis: The Knights of Labor and a Midwest Community, 1885-1886,” The Journal of American History, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jun., 1979), pp. 41-61. It also requires a subscription to access.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1894673?uid=3739848&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=56292820473
U.S. Route 66 and History
U.S. Highway 66, sometimes known as Route 66, was a critical avenue of transportation and commerce and its evolution over time provides a powerful microcosm into the forces transforming the United States in the twentieth century. While some see in it a subject of romance and nostalgia, the road offers an opportunity to examine the transformation of life in America. There is much more to be learned from this road and more to be written about it. The following are beginning points.
Route 66 in the United States. This is a historic context study for U.S. Route 66 I prepared for the National Park Service in 2004: historic context study for U.S. Route 66. That study subsequently served as the core of the Multiple Property Document for nominating Route 66 related resources to the National Register of Historic Places. That document, of which I am co-author, can be found at: http://www.nps.gov/rt66/HistSig/NationalMPDF.pdf
This is a study I prepared of Route 66 in Oklahoma:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=20&ved=0CFYQFjAJOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.okhistory.org%2Fshpo%2Fthematic%2Frt66hr26-70.pdf&ei=g8j1T_vZCemY2wXW5vjJBg&usg=AFQjCNH0b7RBbyiv9utoyK6x9TNR0146bg
And this is a brief narrative of Route 66 in Oklahoma, I prepared for the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/R/RO037.html
Historic Preservation
See also my “Touching the Past in Wyoming,” Foreword to On the Road to Preservation: Wyoming’s Comprehensive Statewide Historic Preservation Plan, 2007-2013 (Cheyenne, Wyoming: State Historic Preservation Office, 2007). Available on the World Wide Web at http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/Preservation/PreservationPlan.pdf
Murie Ranch Historic District, National Historic Landmark Nomination:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CFYQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpdfhost.focus.nps.gov%2Fdocs%2FNHLS%2FText%2F98001039.pdf&ei=hMv1T-zVI6H20gGet6n7Bg&usg=AFQjCNFk5y7bw2dZl3mqxokpLsXwoHn-cQ
