BOZEMAN - Esteemed historian Elliott West will deliver the 2026 Stegner Lecture at Montana State University on Monday, March 23. The lecture, "Continental Reckoning: The West and the Making of Modern America," will begin at 6 p.m. in the Hager Auditorium of the Museum of the Rockies. The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

West is a Distinguished Professor of History emeritus at the University of Arkansas who has written several books and been awarded numerous prizes throughout his career. In 2024, he won the Bancroft Prize in American History, one of the most distinguished awards in the field, for his book "Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion," which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history. Professor Timothy LeCain, head of MSU's Department of History and Philosophy, calls the work West's "magnum opus" and "a gripping, continent-spanning story that puts the process of western expansion at the heart of American history."

"West has become not just one of our greatest historians of the West but also one of the greatest historians of the entire United States," LeCain said.

West's lecture will adhere to the book's premise that America's expansion to the Pacific in the 1840s was at least as important as the Civil War in setting changes in motion that led to the emergence of America as an economic powerhouse and world leader in field after field. In his talk, West will take a look at a few of those changes, from western science to new notions of citizenship, that helped create the America of today.

"This is a lecture anyone interested in American history will not want to miss," LeCain said. "West will challenge you to reckon in new ways with our region's powerful role in creating the modern nation we live in today."

The 2026 Stegner Lecture is sponsored by the Wallace Stegner Endowed Chair in Western American Studies at MSU. The Stegner Lecture series continues the legacy of the late Wallace Stegner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, environmentalist and historian who is now often called the "Dean of Western Writers." Stegner spent part of his childhood in Montana, and he notably spoke at MSU shortly before his death in 1993. Based in the MSU College of Letters and Science, the MSU Wallace Stegner Endowed Chair in Western American Studies focuses on teaching and research in history, literature and philosophy with a concentration on pressing Western issues. The position is supported by the Stegner Chair Endowment. For more information, contact the department at [email protected].