What qualifies as a Western? This question came up several times on Jack the Sailor's thread about 'A' western movies. I'd like to offer my thoughts on this, as I could find no really good answers from a cursory exploration of websites. Generally, I would think of the West as the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast, from Texas to the Canadian Border. But the 18th century west might be from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. For no real reason, I would think of the period after the War of 1812 through the end of that century. But my last category, to my mind, covers the modern west of 'Lonely Are the Brave' or 'The Misfits'.

I have set-up some basic genres, but these are just my thoughts, and you may have others or disagree with some of mine:
*Trappers and trailblazers.
*Cowboys doing cowboy work…chores around the spread, trail drives, sheepmen etc…against the vicissitudes of man and/or nature.
*Drifters who find themselves involved in the problems in a town, or a range war, or the like.
*Town tamers, sheriffs and marshals, either for good or bad.
*Cavalry vs. the Indians.
* Western migration: settling the frontier, a gold rush or a land rush.
*Building a stagecoach line, telegraph or railroad.
*Outlaws robbing trains and banks, alone or as gangs, and the lawmen who brought them to justice…or not.
*The Civil War in the west.
*Closing of the west: barbed wire, urbanization, mechanization.

Perhaps some of these overlap, or, surely there are others some of you might add.