This collection of readings dealing with the American frontier and expansion westward from the Revolution to the end of the nineteenth century has been planned to supplement the standard texts and the instructor's lectures in the college classroom, and to introduce the student to some of the rich store of primary source material bearing on this phase of the country's history.
The editors have used letters, diaries, reminiscences, government records, contemporaneous newspaper and magazine stories, and the impressions of foreign visitors to re-create virtually every facet of the pioneer experience. Because the tale is told in terms of individuals--Indians, mountain men, explorers, soldiers, homesteaders, miners, circuit riders, and politicians--either speaking for themselves or reported at first hand, the great drama of conquest and survival as the nation rolled westward from the Appalachians to the Pacific unfolds with unmatched freshness and immediacy. Although it is intended primarily for students, A Nation Moving West is a book that the general reader with an interest in Western Americana will find hard to resist.
Robert W. Richmond is State Archivist of Kansas at the Kansas Sate Historical Society and a lecturer in history at Washburn University. His co-editor, Robert W. Mardock, is an associate professor of history at Washburn University. Both contribute frequently to scholarly and regional publications.