Pulitzer-winning historian William Goetzmann dies at 80
William H. Goetzmann, 80, who turned his Yale doctoral thesis into a Pulitzer Prize-winning book that revolutionized the way historians viewed American exploration of the Western territories, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 7 at his home in Austin.
A history professor at the University of Texas for more than 40 years, Dr. Goetzmann said legends about six-shootin' outlaws, pan-handlin' prospectors and eagle-feathered Indian chieftains helped forge the West into America's "central national myth."
He wrote and edited more than two dozen history books, including his Pulitzer-winning "Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West" (1966)....
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A history professor at the University of Texas for more than 40 years, Dr. Goetzmann said legends about six-shootin' outlaws, pan-handlin' prospectors and eagle-feathered Indian chieftains helped forge the West into America's "central national myth."
He wrote and edited more than two dozen history books, including his Pulitzer-winning "Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West" (1966)....