The Fatal Confrontation: Historical Studies of American Indians, Environment, and Historians

by Wilbur R. Jacobs, Albert L. Hurtado (Introduction)

These ten essays on Indians, the environment, and frontier historiography showcase Wilbur R. Jacobs's forty-six-year commitment to revising traditional American frontier history. He was among the first ethnoenvironmental scholars to write history from the Native American perspective and to analyze the relationship between Anglo destruction of the Indians and environment. His studies of Francis Parkman and Frederick Jackson Turner continue to open new avenues to their frontier histories. Jacobs's lively memoir recalls his life and career, while Albert L. Hurtado discusses his professor's contributions to American frontier history. A selected bibliography of Jacobs's work closes the essay collection.

214 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Wilbur R. Jacobs (June 30, 1918 – June 15, 1998) was an American historian, with a special interest in Native American, Western, and Environmental history.

Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1918, Jacobs moved west at a young age and settled in the Los Angeles area. He started college at Pasadena City College, then earned his B.A. (1940) and M.A. (1942) in History at the University of California, Los Angeles. After military service during World War II, Jacobs started doctoral study at Johns Hopkins University, but decided to return to UCLA to pursue Western Frontier history under the direction of Lewis Knott Koontz. He finished his doctorate in 1947 and then taught Western Civilization at Stanford University for two years, before accepting a call to the History program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (known at that time as the University of California, Santa Barbara College). At the University of California, Santa Barbara, Jacobs served as a founding member of the History Department and also served as Department Chair from 1961-1964.