Over the course of his career, American explorer William Clark (1770-1838) wrote at least forty-five letters to his older brother Jonathan, including six that were written during the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition. This book publishes many of these letters for the first time, revealing important details about the expedition, the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis, the status of Clark's slave York (the first African American known to have crossed the continent from coast to coast), and other matters of historical significance. There are letters concerning the establishment of the Corps of...
Over the course of his career, American explorer William Clark (1770-1838) wrote at least forty-five letters to his older brother Jonathan, including ...
Hiran Martin Chittenden Hiram Martin Chittenden James P. Ronda
Epic in sweep and reach, strongly written and superbly researched, The American Fur Trade of the Far West is a classic if there ever was one. Its publication in 1902 made clear how much the fur trade was "indissolubly connected to the history of North America." Chittenden brought to this enduring work an appreciation of geography and a feeling for the lives and times of colorful trappers and mountain men like Manuel Lisa, William H. Ashley, the Sublette brothers, Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and Kenneth McKenzie. He provided a comprehensive view of the fur trade that still remains sound....
Epic in sweep and reach, strongly written and superbly researched, The American Fur Trade of the Far West is a classic if there ever was one. Its publ...
In his 1836 account Washington Irving immortalized Astoria, but it has been a footnote to the history of western expansion-a doleful reminder of John Jacob Astor's failed attempt to establish a fur-trading empire at the mouth of the Columbia from 1810 to 1813. Now James P. Ronda makes clear the importance of the Astoria venture in large and complex struggle for national sovereignty in the Northwest. Astoria and Empire is the first modern account and assessment of Astor's enterprise and the first ever to unravel the tangled skein of Astoria's international connections. "On the Columbia," Ronda...
In his 1836 account Washington Irving immortalized Astoria, but it has been a footnote to the history of western expansion-a doleful reminder of John ...
After political defeats and the loss of half his capital in a ranching venture in North Dakota, Theodore Roosevelt began writing his ambitious history of the conquest of the American West in 1888. He projected a sweeping drama, well documented and filled with Americans fighting Indian confederacies north and south while dealing with the machinations of the British, French, and Spanish and their sympathizers. Roosevelt wanted to show how backwoodsmen such as Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, followed by hardy pioneer settlers, gave the United States eventual claim to land west of the Alleghanies....
After political defeats and the loss of half his capital in a ranching venture in North Dakota, Theodore Roosevelt began writing his ambitious history...
"Particularly valuable for Ronda's inclusion of pertinent background information about the various tribes and for his ethnological analysis. An appendix also places the Sacagawea myth in its proper perspective. Gracefully written, the book bridges the gap between academic and general audiences."-Choice James P. Ronda holds the H. G. Barnard Chair in Western History at the University of Tulsa. He is also the author of Finding the West: Explorations with Lewis and Clark and Astoria and Empire, available in a Bison Books edition.
"Particularly valuable for Ronda's inclusion of pertinent background information about the various tribes and for his ethnological analysis. An append...
Although he did not travel farther inland than the slopes of the Appalachians, Thomas Jefferson must take his place alongside Zebulon Pike, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, and Lewis and Clark--the men who blazed the great western trails. Donald Jackson cogently recounts Jefferson s fundamental role in promoting and shaping the exploration, settlement, and development of the Trans-Mississippi West.
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Although he did not travel farther inland than the slopes of the Appalachians, Thomas Jefferson must take his place alongside Zebulon Pike, Kit Car...
The Mackay and Evans expedition (1795-1797) was more than an exploratory mission. It was the last effort by Spain to gain control over the Missouri River basin in the decade before the United States purchased the Louisiana territory. In that respect, it failed. But the expedition was successful as a journey of exploration, and had it not occurred, Lewis and Clark would have been denied valuable documents that significantly aided their exploration. In Prologue to Lewis and Clark, W. Raymond Wood narrates the history of this long-forgotten but important expedition up the Missouri River....
The Mackay and Evans expedition (1795-1797) was more than an exploratory mission. It was the last effort by Spain to gain control over the Missouri Ri...
One of the foremost historians of Lewis and Clark, Ronda grounds "Finding the West" in the insights and reflections he has gleaned from some twenty years of research and writing about this pivotal era. But above all else, Ronda's book is centered on stories and storytellers. As he writes: "This is a book about many storytellers. Their words are French-Canadian, Shoshone, New Hampshire English, Hidatsa, and Chinookan." Ronda documents not only the stories that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark offered about their "road across the continent," but also the large and important stories by and...
One of the foremost historians of Lewis and Clark, Ronda grounds "Finding the West" in the insights and reflections he has gleaned from some twenty...
Named an "Outstanding Title" in University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries, 2009
America's Railroad Age was little more than a decade old when Ralph Waldo Emerson uttered these prophetic words: "Railroad iron is a magician's rod in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water." Railroads exercised a remarkable hold on the imagination. The railroad was not merely transportation; it was a technology that promised to transform the world. Railroads were second only to the federal government in shaping the West, and nowhere was that shaping more visible...
Named an "Outstanding Title" in University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries, 2009
