Lions of the West Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion

by Morgan, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781616201890
• ISBN10: 1616201894
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-21
• Publisher: Algonquin Books

Summary

From Thomas Jefferson's birth in 1743 to the California Gold rush in 1849. America's Manifest destiny comes to life in the skilled hands of bestselling author Robert Morgan. Thomas Jefferson, a naturalist and visionary, dreamed that the United States would stretch across the continent from ocean to ocean. The account of how that dream became reality unfolds in the stories of Jefferson and nine others whose adventurous spirits and lust for land pushed the westward boundaries: Andrew Jackson, John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, David Crockett, Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Kit Carson, Nicholas Trist, and John Quincy Adams. Their tenacity was matched only by that of their enemies-the Mexican army under Santa Anna at the Alamo, the Comanche and Apache Indians, and the forbidding geography itself. With illustrations, portraits, maps, battle plans, appendixes, notes, and time lines, Lions of the West is a richly authoritative biography of America as compelling as a grand novel.

Author Biography

Robert Morgan is the bestselling author of numerous works of fiction—including the Oprah Book Club selection Gap Creek—and non-fiction, and is also an established poet with fourteen collections to his credit. Born in Hendersonville, NC, he teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he is Kappa Alpha Professor of English.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	p. x
Brief Chronology of the Westward Expansion Era	p. xi
Presidents and Vice Presidents before the Civil War	p. xvi
Prologue. The Empire for Liberty	p. xvii
Seeing the Elephant	p. 1
Old Hickory at the Bend	p. 45
Apples and Angels	p. 90
Comedian and Martyr, His Life and Death	p. 114
The President Who Loved to Dance	p. 151
Young Hickory Keeps a Diary	p. 195
Old Fuss and Feathers Goes to the Mountain	p. 257
Taking Boone's Trace to the Pacific	p. 306
The Search for a Father Voice	p. 351
Epilogue: Old Man Eloquent	p. 392
Acknowledgments	p. 413
Notes	p. 417
Bibliography	p. 461
Index	p. 469
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.