Three frontiers : family, land, and society in the American West, 1850-1900
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Three frontiers : family, land, and society in the American West, 1850-1900
(Interdisciplinary perspectives on modern history)
Cambridge University Press, 1997 c1994
- : hbk
- : pbk
Related Bibliography 1 items
Available at / 5 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
First published 1994, first paperback edition published 1997
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book explores the values and aspirations of early settlers in the American Far West. It compares those who settled in the Willamette Valley in the 1840s, the Utah Valley in the 1850s, and the Boise Valley in the 1860s. The Oregon and Utah settlers tried with differing degrees of success to resist the modernizing trends represented by Idaho, but ultimately adopted their individualistic, commercial, and acquisitive values. How did Americans move away from a culture centering on family and kin and from attitudes that valued and protected the land, not for its commercial worth, but as the base of support for future generations? What led to the present tendency to pursue individual pleasure and material well-being at the expense of communal and broader societal well-being? These two questions are central to this comparative study of the three groups who pioneered the Western frontier.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. A long, tedious journey
- 2. His own customs are the best
- 3. These savage desert regions
- 4. The heirs of my body
- 5. The soil to our posterity
- 6. The place where we lived
- 7. Our paths diverged
- Coda
- Note on sources
- Appendix.
by "Nielsen BookData"