This view, however, fails in Limerick's mind, to adequately show how we can directly trace our current social, economic, and political order to Jamestown, Salem, and the Louisiana Purchase. "White Americans saw the acquisition of property as a cultural imperative" (Limerick, 55). How has that changed either before or after? Isn't that the justification used by the Virginia Company when establishing Jamestown? Isn't that the same as Sam Houston's justification for the subjugation and annexation of Texas? Isn't that the same as our ongoing destruction of the environment to create homes, shopping malls, and warehouses? Manifest Destiny existed in the European mindset even before the phrase was coined. Thus, Limerick observes that we have to see our history as part of that same kind of continuity of intent. Indeed, Limerick promotes a moral significance on the history of the American West rather than a focus on specific dates and specific events. Her view is to see all dates and events as part of a continuity - they string together without grand design, but are clearly guided by the common and natural White European tendency to see the world as resource to be owned, beaten into...
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