Explorers of the American West: Mapping the World through Primary Documents

(Hardback)

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Description

With original primary source documents, this anthology brings readers into the vast unknown 19th-century American Westthrough the eyes of the explorers who saw it for the first time. This volume brings together book excerpts, maps, and illustrations from 12 explorers from the 19th century, highlighting their lives and contributions. Arranged chronologically, the 10 chapters focus on individual explorers, with biographies and background information about and document excerpts from each person. The chapters offer analyses of each document's relevance to the historical period, geographic knowledge, and cultural perspective. This guide shares the important contributions from explorers like Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, Jedediah Smith, James P. Beckwourth, John C. Fremont, Susan Magoffin, and John Wesley Powell. It also nurtures readers' historical literacy by modeling historians' methods of analyzing primary sources. Readers will see new and familiar events from different perspectives, including that of a woman traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, one of the most famous African American mountain men, and a Civil War veteran, among many others.

Reviews

Top Community College Resource, November 2016 * Choice *
Altogether, Explorers of the American West is a user-friendly collection of documentation that shares the experience of the explorer or traveler in the westward expansion in the 19th-century United States. The primary sources are engaging and bring the reader in to the experience. Sourcing information is well organized and clear. This collection of written documentation and analysis will be extremely useful for scholars, researchers, and historians seeking primary source information on United States westward exploration. Highly recommended. * ARBA *
Although excerpts and full-text transcripts of many of these documents can be found online, the inclusion of all of them in a single volume with accompanying analysis and imagery make this resource particularly useful for students of the American West, the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, and the exploration of North America. Summing Up: Recommended. High school through undergraduate students; general readers. * Choice *

Author Bio

Jay H. Buckley, PhD, is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Jeffery D. Nokes, PhD, is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.