Steven L. Danver is academic coordinator and core faculty member in social sciences in the College of Undergraduate Studies at Walden University. A lifelong resident of the American West, he was born and raised in Southern California and has, at various times, lived in Central California, Northern California, Utah, and Colorado. He currently resides in southern Washington State. After completing a bachelor’s degree in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in historical studies from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, he earned his doctorate in American history from the University of Utah. Professionally, he has specialized in the history and politics of the American West, as well as in American Indian and American environmental history and policy. His research has largely centered on natural resource policy as it has applied to American Indian nations. He has taught at nearly every type of institution of higher education, including large research universities, small liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and online universities. He has edited or coedited a number of books, including Water Politics and Policy in the United States (with John R. Burch Jr., CQ Press/SAGE, 2011), which was named to the 2012 Outstanding Academic Title list by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine. He has been the managing editor of Journal of the West since 2004.
The Encyclopedia of Politics in the American West is an A to Z reference work on the political development of one of America's most politically distinct, not to mention its fastest growing, region. This work covers not only the significant events and actors of Western politics, but also deal with key institutional, historical, environmental, and sociopolitical themes and concepts that are important to more fully understanding the politics of the West over the last century.
