The West, an illustrated history

Edited by Henry Steele Commager

Promontory Press New York, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated.


The great westward drive of the American people was one of the truly heroic episodes in the history of mankind, and out of this great movement of peoples and cultures grew one of the world's most dynamic and vibrant civilizations. Small wonder, then, that the West has captured imaginations; that the great individuals of the western movement are enshrined in popular mythology, and that the concept of the frontier has profoundly influenced the national character.

The authors, a group of scholars working under the direction of Professor Commager, examine all the many strands which created the West. A variety of attractions - furs, gold, land, the railway boom - drew men west; and different cultures - such as those of Catholic Mexico, the Mormons, the cattle barons and the Indians­clashed, prospered and declined. Underlying all these aspects was the harsh reality of life: the vast distances, unyielding land and constant threat of violence which gave the West a unique character affecting all the individuals who lived and died there.

These vigorous and often disparate elements are carefully fitted into the story as a whole, and the popular images of Davy Crockett at the Alamo, covered wagons rolling across the prairies, and the 'Wild West' of cattle drives and outlaws are placed firmly within the social, diplomatie and economie framework.

Illustrated with over 300 photographs and paintings, this book is a marvelous insight into the reality of a legendary epoch.