The American West - Living the Frontier Dream

Among humankind's great adventures was the settlement of the American west. James Arnold and Roberta Wiener look beyond legendary exploits and the romanticized image of the west to describe the daily life and practical concerns of pioneer settlers. They draw upon diaries and letters to show us ordinary people of modest means living lives of astonishing courage and resourcefulness.

Open this book and open a window on long-vanished times and places. Endure the hardship and danger of Kentucky in the 1780s, where pioneers labored under the new nation's most primitive frontier conditions to carve out productive farms. Rejoice at the lush and abundant fields of Oregon in the 1840s, the reward for six months of grueling travel. Experience New Mexico in the 1850s, an exotic territory won in war, where Americans settled among the unfamiliar adobe towns and irrigated fields of Mexicans and the pueblos of the southwestern Indians. Take a last gamble on windswept South Dakota in the 1880s and try to survive on an arid and treeless homestead.

Through meticulous research and an eye for the telling detail, the authors have captured the experience of making a fresh start in a new land. Discover exactly what it took to create a home, and a new nation, out on the frontier.