Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In this book, his final work, Rodman W. Paul explores settlement of the American West in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Lured by stories of open spaces, fertile farming, and grazing lands and by the attraction of gold and silver, people from many nations traveled westward by the thousands. Early migrants rode in stagecoaches and Conestoga wagons; their successors, on the transcontinental railroads, which linked western cities with their eastern counterparts. This comprehensive history describes not only population movement and mining development but also banking, farming, ranching, and other economic ventures.
In a new foreword, Martin Ridge places Paul's history in the context of contemporary scholarship.