American state university upheld capital item (4)
I believe the answer is:
utah
'american state' is the definition.
(I know that Utah is U.S. state)
'university upheld capital item' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'U' (abbreviation for university).
'upheld' says the letters should be written backwards.
'capital item' becomes 'hat' (I have seen 'Item of headgear ' mean 'hat' so perhaps 'item' could also mean 'hat'. I am not sure about the 'capital' bit.).
'hat' in reverse letter order is 'tah'.
'u'+'tah'='UTAH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for utah that I've seen before include "Mormon US state" , "US state settled by the Mormons" , "Brigham Young's state" , "Great Salt Lake state" , "State of western US" .)