| Contents |
Part I. Napoleon's gift. The river at the heart of America ; The corps of discovery ; West by northwest ; To the Pacific -- Part II. A skin for a skin. Astoria ; Comcomly's dismay ; The white-headed eagle ; Mountain man ; Colter's run ; Ursus horribilis -- Part III. Gone to Texas. Moses Austin's dying wish ; Texas will be lost ; Ruin and redemption ; Victory or death ; Bloody Palm Sunday ; Laying there yet -- Part IV. The great migration. The four wise men ; Females wanted ; Trapped out ; Waiilatpu ; For God and country ; The way west ; The business of the trail ; Desperate fury ; Ambassador from Oregon -- Part V. The world in a nugget of gold. The secret of the Sierra Nevada ; Gold mountain ; Crime and punishment ; The spirit of '87 ; To be decently poor ; Where can we go? -- Part VI. Steel rails and sharps rifles. Stephen Douglas's brainstorm ; North, south, west ; Free soil ; Hell on wheels ; Saints and sinners ; Once we were happy ; There would be no soldiers left ; Adobe walls ; Lost river ; The pride of Young Joseph -- Part VII. The middle border. Abilene ; Hard lesson ; Into the great unknown ; The arid region ; More like us ; It grew very cold ; Less corn and more hell ; Bonanza -- Part VIII. The cowboy in the White House. Rough riding ; West takes east ; Cashing in ; John Muir's last stand ; The long, long trail. |
| Abstract |
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. |
| Abstract |
When Napoleon offered to sell French Louisiana, America was launched on a fateful and fraught journey west. Brands 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. Live in the west evoked both selfless heroism and unspeakable violence, against indigenous peoples and one another. It was soon evident that El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East-- adapted from jacket |
| General note | Maps on end pages. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 485-506) and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Brands, H. W., author. Dreams of El Dorado New York : Basic Books, 2019 9781541672536 |
| Genre/form | History. |
| LCCN | 2018048887 |
| ISBN | 9781541672529 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1541672526 |
