Clyde Milner, Denver, Colorado: an interview by Greg Smoak and Gregory C. Thompson, 4 October 2012

Transcript (44 pages) of an interview by Greg Smoak and Greg Thompson with historian Clyde Milner at Denver, Colorado, on 4 October 2012. Part of the Western History Association Oral History Project, Everett Cooley Collection tape no. U-3170

Clyde Milner, longtime editor of the Western Historical Quarterly and professor of history at Utah State University and then Arkansas State University, remembers his career and his time at the WHQ. Professor Milner started at Duke University in religious studies, received a PhD in American Studies from Yale, and worked with famous Western historian Howard Lamar. Hired before he completed his degree, he taught at Utah State University for a quarter-century. When he became part of the WHQ editorial staff he also became active in the Western History Association, the journal´s parent organization, and received its Award of Merit in 2012. Professor Milner also explains the WHQ´s shift to keep pace with trends in scholarship, particularly the New Western History. He attributes much of the journal´s success in the New Western era to Charles Peterson, and talks at some length on the politics of WHQ editorship and teaching at Utah State in general, as well as dwelling on the perceived influence of Howard Lamar´s students in Western history. Project: Western History Association. Interviewer: Gregory C. Thompson and Greg Smoak