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Wagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails

Wagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails

by Frank McLynn (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2003

    $3.25
Synopsis

In all the sagas of human migration, none can top the drama of the journey by mid-Western farmers to Oregon and California in the years 1840-49. Sandwiched between the era of the fur trappers and the post-1849 gold fever, this account of the pioneering years in the overland trails highlights and explains a unique experience both in American and world history. Seeking the promised land, these travellers trekked two thousand miles by covered wagon from Missouri to their destination on the Pacific. Using mountain men as guides, they went into the unknown, braving dangers from hunger, thirst, disease, drowning and Indians. The early overlanders got through only after Herculean efforts, but later in the decade complacency set in, and the result was disaster, especially in the case of the Donner party, marooned in the snows and reduced to cannibalism.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 544
 Edition: 2nd Edition
 Publisher: Pimlico
Published: 06 Mar 2003
ISBN 10: 0712664211
ISBN 13: 9780712664219
Book Overview: A key, defining era in American history, full of extraordinary stories and larger than life characters.

Media Reviews
[A] superbly written and meticulously evoked tale of one of the greatest and most historically significant mass human migrations in history -- Steve Grant * Independent on Sunday *
Frank McLynn has done justice to the courage and the endurance of those who did take the Oregan and California Trails...The word epic is overused, but the story McLynn has told, and told well, deserves it -- Godfrey Hodgson * New Statesman *
Frank McLynn should be praised to the skies for producing this outstanding analysis...His subtle grasp of the changing political context is impressive, his pen-portraits of individuals witty and telling, his prose scintillating. Wagons West is a truly stunning, all-round production -- Christopher Silvester * Sunday Express *
McLynn seems a perfect match for his subject...His account of the Donner party is crafted like the finest novella and brilliantly narrated. It may be the climax of the book but, as one would expect from this master storyteller, all of Wagons West is compellingly told and assembled from the widest possible range of primary sources -- Mark Cocker * Guardian *
Author Bio
Frank McLynn is a highly regarded historian, who specializes in biographies and military history. He has written over 20 books, including critically acclaimed biographies of Napoleon and Richard the Lionheart. Other books include 1066, Stanley, 1759, and Marcus Aurelius. He is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, and London University, where he obtained his doctorate.