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The Making of the Great West, 1512-1883

Chapter 2: PREFACE.
By Samuel Adams Drake
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About This Book

A narrative history traces European penetration and American settlement of the trans‑Mississippi West, surveying Spanish, French, and English exploration and colonization, missionary and military efforts, and encounters with indigenous peoples. It follows key expeditions and figures, the Louisiana purchase and overland pathfinders, the Oregon Trail and waves of emigration, the California gold rush, territorial conflicts including the Mexican War and Kansas-Nebraska struggle, and the political and infrastructural developments—railroads, state admissions, and settlement patterns—that forged the continental United States. Chapters combine descriptive vignettes, maps, and illustrations to present themes of conquest, cultural collision, migration, and economic transformation.

PREFACE.

"Time's noblest offspring is the last."

This history is intended to meet, so far as it may, the want for brief, compact, and handy manuals of the beginnings of our country.

Although primarily designed for young people, the fact has not been overlooked that the same want exists among adult readers, to whom an intelligent view of the subject, in a little space, is nowhere accessible.

For the purpose in hand, the simplest language consistent with clearness has been made use of, though I have never hesitated to employ the right word, whenever I could command it, even if it were of more than three syllables.

As in the "Making of New England," "this book aims to occupy a place between the larger and lesser histories,—to so condense the exhaustive narrative as to give it greater vitality, or so extend what the narrow limits of the school-history often leave obscure as to supply the deficiency. Thus, when teachers have a particular topic before them, it is intended that a chapter on the same subject be read to fill out the bare outlines of the common-school text-book.

"To this end the plan has been to treat each topic as a unit, to be worked out to a clear understanding of its objects and results before passing to another topic. And in furtherance of this method, each subject has its own descriptive notes, maps, plans and pictorial illustration, so that all may contribute to a thorough knowledge of the matter in hand. The several topics readily fall into groups that have an apparent or underlying connection, which is clearly brought out."

In this volume, I have followed up to its legitimate ending the work done by the three great rival powers of modern times in civilizing our continent. I have tried to make it the worthy, if modest, exponent of a great theme. The story grows to absorbing interest, as the great achievement of the age,—of the Anglo-Saxon overcoming the Latin race, as one great wave overwhelms another with resistless force.

Under the title of "The Great West," the present volume deals mostly with the section lying beyond the Mississippi. Another is proposed, in which the central portion of the Union will be treated. The completed series, it is hoped, will present something like a national portrait of the American people.