Dreams of El Dorado : a history of the American West

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Brands, H. W.

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

xvi, 524 pages : ill. ; 25 cm.

Summary:

Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes readers from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush.

Contents:

Part I. Napoleon's gift -- Part II. A skin for a skin -- Part III. Gone to Texas -- Part IV. The great migration -- Part V. The world in a nugget of gold -- Part VI. Steel rails and sharps rifles -- Part VII. The middle border -- Part VIII. The cowboy in the White House.

Subject Term:

Frontier and pioneer life -- United States.

Publication Info:

New York : Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2019.

Subject:

Frontier and pioneer life -- United States.

West (U.S.) -- Discovery and exploration.

West (U.S.) -- History

United States -- Territorial expansion

Border life

Frontier and pioneer life -- History

Homesteading

Pioneer life

American West

Trans-Mississippi West (U.S.)

United States, Western

Western States (U.S.)

Western United States

Expansion (United States politics)

United States -- Annexations

SAILS ISBN:

9781541672529

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Attleboro Public Library	978.02 BRA	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Carver Public Library	978.02 BRA	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Dartmouth - Southworth	978.02 BRA 2019	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... East Bridgewater Public Library	978.02 BRA 2019	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent	978 BRA 2019	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library	978.02 BRANDS	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Hanson Public Library	978.02 BRA	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mansfield Public Library	978.02 B	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Norfolk Public Library	978.02 BRAN	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Norton Public Library	978.02 BRA	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

"Epic in its scale, fearless in its scope" (Hampton Sides), this masterfully told account of the American West from a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist sets a new standard as it sweeps from the California Gold Rush and beyond.
In Dreams of El Dorado , H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame-and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. The West was where riches would reward the miner's persistence, the cattleman's courage, the railroad man's enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.

Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West.

Reviews (5)

Publisher's Weekly Review

University of Texas historian Brands (Heirs of the Founders) argues convincingly that the reality of the American West was very different than the way it was mythologized: as the epitome of the nation's frontier spirit, where the individual could ignore the rules of government and society and, ideally, strike it rich. Surveying the region's history from the Louisiana Purchase through the closing of the frontier, Brands ably recounts the stories of individuals such as Thomas Jefferson, who was both thrilled and alarmed by the immensity of this newly acquired territory; the merchant John Jacob Astor, whose attempt to gain control of the Pacific Northwest's fur trade collapsed in an orgy of violence between his agents and local Native Americans; and the missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who ventured to Oregon to proselytize to the indigenous people but were brutally murdered by members of the Cayuse tribe, who blamed them for the lethal spread of measles. He also introduces readers to lesser-known figures, such as the quartz mine workers of post--Gold Rush California, who brought the Industrial Revolution to the Pacific frontier, and the Irish and Chinese migrants whose back-breaking labors built the Transcontinental Railroad. Brands delivers lucid prose and short, tightly focused chapters. This broad but clearly structured study, with its many well-chosen illustrations, is likely to have wide appeal. (Oct.)

Kirkus Review

The prolific American historian turns his attention to the conquest of the West.As Brands (Chair, History/Univ. of Texas; Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants, 2018, etc.) notes in opening, the American West was, in ancient times, the Asian East and the Beringian South. By the time Thomas Jefferson signed off on the Louisiana Purchase, it was definitively part of North America, contested by European powers but almost inevitably a part of the United States. The author identifies three commanding themes in Western history: the capacity of the region for "the evoking and shattering of dreams," a pattern of constant violence, and unparalleled irony "in the form of paradox, contradiction and unintended consequence." Emblematic of the first was Theodore Roosevelt's dream of ranching in the Dakota Territory, a failed enterprise that nonetheless cast New York City native Roosevelt as "that damned cowboy," as politician Mark Hanna called him. The second figures throughout the author's lucid, fluent narrative at places like the Alamo and Wounded Knee. (One of the recurrent characters is the Sioux leader Black Elk, who lived a long life after many key battles.) Brands locates irony in the fact that the West gave us the iconic figures of the lone gunfighter and stalwart settler while the conquest of the region was emphatically an exercise in collective power on the part of the federal government. Another irony, especially given current events in the region, is the fact that "by scores, then by hundreds and thousands, illegal immigrants poured into Texas" in the 1820sillegal immigrants from, that is, the U.S., creating the conditions that led to war with Mexico. The author turns up little-known historical facts: two subsequent invasions of Texas, after the collapse of Mexican rule under Santa Anna, by Mexican armies; the admission of California as a state in which slavery was illegalbut where blacks were almost forbidden to enter; and many more, lending depth to his narrative.A lively, well-written survey full of novel observations on a region shrouded in legend. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

When Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana from Napoleon, he envisioned his infant nation expanding from its Atlantic shores in ways fundamentally no different from the original states' development. How could he guess that the American West would evolve down totally unforeseeable paths? Historian Brands (Heirs of the Founders, 2018) surveys the past three centuries of the West, chronicling all-too-human tales of hope, greed, triumph, tragedy, and irony. His history is propelled by the stories of amazing characters, some famous, others obscure. Joe Meek trekked into the mountains to escape his dysfunctional Virginia family. Narcissa Whitman planned to evangelize the so-called heathens of Oregon. John Wesley Powell gambled everything to map out how the Colorado River reached its mouth. Black Elk fought futilely to defend an ancient way of life. Theodore Roosevelt failed as a cattle baron and had to settle for the presidency. Brands' history rushes forward, pausing from time to time to consider geography and economics, but his focus remains on the dozens of personalities with whom he sympathizes without sentimentality. This is a marvelous short history of the West, rewarding both expert and neophyte readers. A map, photographs, illustrations, and bibliography supplement the text.--Mark Knoblauch Copyright 2010 Booklist

Choice Review

The 19th-century American West continues to fascinate a large reading audience, and this book will certainly satisfy the desire for a new synthesis of historical events. Within the diverse subregions extending from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, larger-than-life characters came into conflict with one another, often leading to bloodshed and changes in territorial boundaries. Among many topics, Brands (Univ. of Texas, Austin) discusses the Louisiana Purchase, international fur trade rivalries, the Texas Revolution of 1836, Oregon Trail migration, the California gold rush, Mormon settlement in the Great Basin, slavery expansion and the Civil War, legendary American Indian wars, railroad construction, cattle trailing, and Populist political challenges. By the end of the century, eastern audiences began to romanticize the "passing of the West," seeking to establish a nostalgic connection to earlier times through the art and writings of men such as Frederic Remington and Theodore Roosevelt. Amid this new sensitivity emerged a fledgling environmental movement that stressed preservation, rather than conquest, of the western landscape. This otherwise competent and fast-paced study is not as well served by its unconventional endnote style and its reliance on a single generalized map. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Michael L. Tate, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Library Journal Review

Although President Thomas Jefferson did not believe that the Constitution gave him the authority to expand the territory of the United States through the purchase of land, he nonetheless accepted Napoleon's offer to make the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million. Brands (history, Univ. of Texas at Austin; The First American) begins his history of the American West with that momentous decision. He then explores the settlement of the region through the experiences of numerous individuals, some famous but many unknown. Among the themes that emerge is that while the West promised opportunity, the extreme challenges faced by settlers denied many the future they envisioned. Another was that violence reigned, especially as it related to the determination of Native Americans to defend their homelands. That issue necessitated the might of the U.S. military, which is also part of another theme, namely that the settlement of the West would not have happened without federal intervention. This marks a very different picture from the traditional view that the West was the product of rugged individualism. VERDICT Although this work treads familiar ground, Brands is a master storyteller whose latest monograph will enthrall aficionados of 19th-century American history.--John R. Burch, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin