"The American Frontier" provides a detailed and richly illustrated overview of the westward expansion of colonial and post-colonial America through diplomacy, war, wanderlust, and grit. The frontier is defined and demythologized as Hollywood's stereotypical portrayals are replaced with factual yet no less fascinating and lively depictions of pioneer life. Daniel Boone, the Louisiana Purchase, the explorations of Lewis and Clark, the subjugation of the Indians, the Mexican-American War, and the building of the transcontinental railroad are among the events and personalities vividly described.Challenging review questions encourage meaningful reflection and historical analysis. Maps, tests, answer key, and extensive bibliography included.

Who owns the West? -- Buffalo Bill and Karl May : the origins of German Western fandom -- A wall runs through it : western fans in the two Germanies -- Little houses on the prairie -- "And then the American Indians came over" : fan responses to indigenous resurgence and political change -- Indians into Confederates : historical fiction fans, reenactors, and living history.

Explores a range of dangerous and disgusting jobs people had to do in America during the frontier days, such as mining for gold, herding cattle, and washing flea-ridden clothes.

Recovering an Irish Voice from the American Frontier is a bilingual compilation of stories by Eoin Ua Cathail, an Irish emigrant, based loosely on his experiences in the West and Midwest. The author draws on the popular American Dime Novel genre throughout to offer unique reflections on nineteenth-century American life. As a member of a government mule train accompanying the U.S. military during the Plains Indian Wars, Ua Cathail depicts fierce encounters with Native American tribes, while also subtly commenting on the hypocrisy of many famine-era Irish immigrants who failed to recognize the parallels between their own plight and that of dispossessed Native peoples. These views are further challenged by his stories set in the upper Midwest. His writings are marked by the eccentricities and bloated claims characteristic of much American Western literature of the time, while also offering valuable transnational insights into Irish myth, history, and the Gaelic Revival movement. This bilingual volume, with facing Irish-English pages, marks the first publication of Ua Cathail’s work in both the original Irish and in translation. It also includes a foreword from historian Richard White, a comprehensive introduction by Mahoney, and a host of previously unpublished historical images. “Ua Cathail’s Irish-language tales anticipate Twain and Hemingway in a multicultural world of settlers, shysters, and simple idealists still confronted by the challenge of Native Americans.”—Declan Kiberd, author of Inventing Ireland: The Literature of a Modern Nation

For nearly two hundred years, a fragment of the journal of John Maley, an obscure explorer on the American frontier, resided at Yale University and was treated with some skepticism by historians. It was only in 2012, when the first half of the manuscript turned up at a barn sale in Pennsylvania and was acquired by Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library, that the full story of Maley’s travels could be pieced together. Wanderer on the American Frontier makes the complete journal available for the first time, allowing readers to follow a contemporary of Lewis and Clark on his journey through the Ohio, Mississippi, and Red River valleys, and to reassess the account’s authenticity. Between 1808 and 1813, Maley covered more than 16,000 miles through thirteen present-day states. Much of that travel took him beyond the fringes of civilization, and his journal offers some of the earliest descriptions of the Ozark Plateau, the Ouachita Mountains, and the upper reaches of the Red River. His account also provides a firsthand look at life on the frontier in the tumultuous years following the Louisiana Purchase. Editor F. Andrew Dowdy has carefully retraced Maley’s steps and, with extensive use of maps, has reconciled some of the journal’s more confusing passages to give readers clear modern-day reference points. Numerous annotations and appendices provide necessary historical context, from the link between Maley’s 1809 Indiana copper exploration and the Treaty of Fort Wayne, to the ways his 1811 foray into Spanish Texas presaged further filibusters there during the Mexican War for Independence. The fascinating tale of one of the wider-ranging explorers in American history, Wanderer on the American Frontier is an invaluable resource that provides a unique window on the West in the early nineteenth century.

Abbey Green hates Seattle, rain, and him. With her life in shambles after a breakup and the loss of her job, it seems she has no other option but to return to her hometown of Boise, Idaho, to stay with her widowed mother. During her trip, when she is plagued by strange dreams, Abbey has no idea they are foretelling of what is to come. While visiting her childhood home and doing her best to deal with her mother’s declining mental capacity, Abbey uncovers a dusty trunk in the attic. Inside is a gold locket and an old handwritten diary that details a young woman’s journey from Kentucky to Oregon during 1852. A short time later, as Abbey holds the locket in her hand, she is suddenly thrust back in time where she joins a wagon train headed west on the Oregon Trail during the same time period. While on a journey filled with hardships, tragedy, and adversity, Abbey not only gains new relationships but also insight into her own path forward in life. In this historical novel, a modern-day woman travels back in time to join a wagon train on the Oregon Trail, finding insight into her twenty-first century life.

Learn the real stories behind the infamous renegades of the West with “Motavalli’s entertaining treatment of this bunch of baddies” (HistoryNet.com). The rebels and bandits of the American West—like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—have always made for thrilling tales of gunfights, heists, and outlaws. From the beginning, penny dreadfuls, Wild West shows, dime novels, and urban legends romanticized and magnified these renegades and their wild American spirits. These tales, however, don’t capture the truth of the West’s outlaws—nor do we hear about other lawless individuals, such as Pearl Hart, Belle Starr, or the Bloody Espinosas. Jim Motavalli returns with The Real Dirt on America’s Frontier Outlaws to give a real and more inclusive look at the old West and the dangerous figures that immortalized it.

Learn the truth behind the famous characters of the Wild West—and how the legends got it wrong—in this lively history that separates fact from fiction. The historic figures of the Western frontier have fascinated us for generations. But in many cases, the stories we know about them are little more than inventions. Popular legend won’t tell you, for instance, that David Crockett was a congressman, or that Daniel Boone was a Virginia legislator. Thanks to penny dreadfuls, Wild West shows, sensationalist newspaper stories, and tall tales told by the explorers themselves, what we know of these men and women is often more fiction than fact. The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends separates fact from fiction, showing the legends and the evidence side-by-side to give readers the real story of the old West. Here you’ll discover the fascinating truth about Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Calamity Jane, Kit Carson, Davy Crocket, and many others.

WOMAN AS A PIONEER Every battle has its unnamed heroes. The common soldier enters the stormed fortress and, falling in the breach which his valor has made, sleeps in a nameless grave. The subaltern whose surname is scarcely heard beyond the roll-call on parade, bears the colors of his company where the fight is hottest. And the corporal who heads his file in the final charge, is forgotten in the "earthquake shout" of the victory which he has helped to win. The victory may be due as much, or more, to the patriot courage of him who is content to do his duty in the rank and file, as to the dashing colonel who heads the regiment, or even to the general who plans the campaign: and yet unobserved, unknown, and unrewarded the former passes into oblivion while the leader's name is on every tongue, and perhaps goes down in history as that of one who deserved well of his country.

The American History a Day at A Time books present the story behind the headlines. It is easy and fun to learn a lesson in colonial American history facts daily. If you have ever read those “This Day in History” listings, you may have been curious about the events behind the scenes. The 366 short history stories in this collection of history stories are from the pioneer frontier period of American history. They include historical facts and events for a whole year. This complete edition of historical events includes: January 10, 1776 Common Sense By Thomas Paine Published February 9, 1674 English Re-Conquer New York From Netherlands March 17, 1637 - The First Recorded Celebration Of St. Patrick's Day In Boston April 6, 1712 - Slave Revolt In New York May 3, 1654 - First Toll Bridge in the Colonies Authorized June 5, 1752 - Benjamin Franklin's First Kite Experiment July 4, 1754 - George Washington Surrenders Fort Necessity to France August 27, 1665 - Ye Bare & Ye Cubb" Is First Play Performed In North America September 01, 1730 - Benjamin Franklin Common-Law Marriage To Deborah Read October 20, 1720 – Pirate Calico Jack Is Captured By the Royal Navy November 22, 1718 - English pirate Edward Teach ("Blackbeard") Killed December 23, 1750 - Ben Franklin Attempts to Electrocute a Turkey little known, obscure, facts, forgotten, stories,