His father was an editor for the Dallas Morning News, and his brother was a travel writer.
West received an undergraduate degree in journalism[1] at the University of Texas at Austin.
He became a faculty member at the University of Arkansas in 1979 where he is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of History.
[4][5] The work won the 1999 Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians and shared the Ray Allen Billington Prize from the Organization of American Historians that year.
[6][7] A 2009 book, The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story, was reviewed in The Journal of American History.