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What Is a Western? Outstanding Book Award Lecture

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Topics: Imagined Wests

book cover detail

Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis accepts the “Outstanding Book Award” for his book What Is a Western? Region, Genre, Imagination, from the Center for the Study of the American West (CSAW) at West Texas A&M University. He speaks about various topics in the book—Joan Didion, sci-fi Westerns, and heavy metal among them—as well as his multi-sided view of Westerns. 

This interview is part of a series exploring the significance of the Western genre and the ways in which the pop culture shapes our understanding of the American West. If you’re interested in seeing past interviews.

2020 CSAW Book Award Winner Virtual Reception and Lecture: What is a Western?

Learn More


To Read

Josh Garrett-Davis, What Is a Western? Region, Genre, Imagination (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019) 

M12 Studio, The Center Pivot Library (Last Chance Press and Jap Sam Books, 2018) 

Frank Reade Jr. and His New Steam Man; or, the Young Inventor’s Trip to the Far West (1892) 


To Watch and Listen 

Gene Autry in The Phantom Empire on Shout TV 

The Frisco Kid (1979) 

The Highwaymen, “American Remains” and “Silver Stallion” 

Land Acknowledgment

The Autry Museum of American West acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). We recognize that the Autry Museum and its campuses are located on the traditional lands of Gabrielino/Tongva peoples and we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.

The Autry Museum in Griffith Park

4700 Western Heritage Way

Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462
Located northeast of downtown, across from the Los Angeles Zoo.
Map and Directions

Free parking for Autry visitors.


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