Editor's Note Among the Ruins Treasure Hunting in Baghdad Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos talks with NEH Chairman Bruce Cole about recovering stolen artifacts in Iraq. Preparing for the Worst An emergency guide helps save historical collections from the elements. By Katie Kadue The West A New Visual Language An exhibition explores how the American West inspired Modernism. By Susan Saccoccia The Boom Heard Round the World Fortune hunters from Chile to France flock to California in search of gold. By Geoffrey Saunders Schramm Season of Dashed Hopes Disenchanted American miners turn their anger toward foreigners in the gold fields. By Susan Lee Johnson Beyond San Simeon Architect Julia Morgan blends European training with California style to create Hearst's castle. By Maggie Riechers Early American Stories The Home as History Teachers use James Madison's Montpelier to understand the Constitution and eighteenth-century politics. By Christopher Eiswerth Prince Among Slaves A new documentary chronicles the forty-year odyssey of a slave's return to Africa. By Laura Harbold Around the Nation From Poverty to Plato Utah's college humanities courses transform lives. By Jean Cheney In Focus Deborah Watrous uses radio to build community in New Hampshire. By Christopher Eiswerth Archive Past issues of Humanities are archived online. Subscribe Subscriptions to Humanities magazine are available through the Government Printing Office.