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Title: Wagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails by Frank McLynn ISBN: 0-8021-1731-7 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 10 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Unbelievably Good!
Comment: Frank Mc Lynn had written one of the finest pieces of literature on the subject of the United States' westward migration that has been written. Focusing on the pre California gold rush western expansion, he starts the book with the question, why? He then takes the reader sequentially through each year, 1841-1848, weaving from diaries and journals this epic story of our country's geographic growth. To say that these people were tough is to perfect the English art of understatement.
It is a complex story. The basic drivers are as different as are the dreams that were pursued. Yet this amazing story is unraveled in such incredible detail that the reader is truly left very informed of the events and people, large and small, that make up the fabric of this phase of our Nation's Manifest Destiny.
As you turn each page you know that this work took time. The fortitude of the emigrants, the concentric, enabling combination of the mountain men, the missionaries and Britain's Hudson Bay Company and the surprising, early support of the Native Americans, all combine to describe a very different story than that which occurred after the discovery California gold.
McLynn takes his time but makes sure each moment of the reader's time is satisfying. The result is a really remarkable work, unparalleled anywhere, by anyone else. But in the end there remains the question of why? Why did they do it? Why did they endure? Why did they continue to come, year after year, and in increasing numbers? This is an amazing tale told by a very gifted historian. You will not be disappointed.
Rating: 5
Summary: First-rate of western emigration
Comment: This is a class act look into the overland emigration movement to Oregon and California during the 1840's. Dr. McLynn seems to have somewhat of a mental metal detector as he meticulously sifts through and unearths the numerous journals, diaries and biographies of early day pioneers who blazed their way westward.
After a captivating introduction on Manifest Destiny and reasons why these adventurers left their homes and ventured out into the wilderness, McLynn then chronolgically guides the reader through the 1840's decade of the Oregon/California/Mormon Trails.
Beginning with the first attempt of its kind westward emigration of the Bidwell/Bartleson wagon party in 1841, we then read of the 1842 White/Hastings party; the 1843 Applegate/Overton Johnson wagon train; the six major companies of 1844 such as Andrew Sublette, Stephens, Gilliam, Nathaniel Ford and others; the 1845 parties of Joel Palmer, Samuel Parker and others, along with a detailed account of the disastrous and deadly Stephen Meek Cutoff incident; the various 1846 wagon companies, with an entire chapter devoted to the gruesome, ghastly and grisly Donner Party tragedy in the Sierra Nevada mountains; an in depth study of the Mormon's mass migrations from 1847-1848; and culminating with how the California gold rush of 1849 blew life on the trails all helter skelter.
A very articulate and keenly written book, the reader certainly acquires a feeling for the many hardships, sacrifices, sufferings, endurance levels, etc. that these early pioneers endured to get to the land of their dreams.
An excellent book.
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Title: The Age of Gold : The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream by H.W. Brands ISBN: 0385502168 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 20 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Pathfinder: John Charles Fr¿mont and the Course of American Empire by Tom Chaffin ISBN: 0809075571 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: 04 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Orphans Preferred : The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express by CHRISTOPHER CORBETT ISBN: 0767906926 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Surviving the Oregon Trail, 1852 by Mary Ann Boatman, Willis Boatman, Weldon Willis Rau ISBN: 0874222389 Publisher: Washington State Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 by John D., Jr. Unruh ISBN: 0252063600 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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