Histories of the American frontier

"Long out of print, this study of western mining is now available with three new chapters by Elliott West. When originally published in 1963, Professor Paul's book offered the first comprehensive view of western mining as an integral part of the settlement process. In his supplemental chapters, Professor West presents a social history of mining camps - encompassing discussions of gender, class, race, labor, and the environment. The combined scholarship of Paul and West makes a strong case for the transforming effects of the mining frontier on western society in particular and American society in general. This revised, expanded edition continues to offer a distinctively vivid voice and an unusually keen eye for telling detail."--BOOK JACKET.

Analysis of the attitudes and behavioral traits judged to be most distinctively "American" by European travelers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Weighs the pros and cons of Frederick Jackson Turner's "frontier thesis."

Recounts the history of white and Native American conflict during the last half of the nineteenth century, examining the perspectives of both sides.

"In the years between 1795 and 1830, the vital southwestern quadrant of the young republic, encompassing the modern-day states between South Carolina and Louisiana, witnessed nearly unceasing conflict. Many of the disputes resulted from the United States pushing aside a hundred thousand Indians as well as overtaking the final vestiges of Spanish, French, and British presence in a wilderness Americans sought for its abundant pastureland, fertile soil, and forest products. Out of the expansion of the frontier to the Mississippi River emnerged leaders such as Andrew Jackson, policies like Indian Removal, and a willingness to let adventurous settlers open up a new territories as a part of the Manifest Destiny of a growing country. As this volume makes clear, an understanding of the history of the Old Southwest is important because events there foretold the nation's transcontinental expansion"--Bookjacket.