Western History Travel

This thoughtful examination of a century of travel writing about the American West overturns a variety of popular and academic stereotypes. Looking at both European and American travelers' accounts of the West, from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways, David Wrobel offers a counternarrative to the nation's romantic entanglement with its Western past and suggests the importance of some long-overlooked authors, lively and perceptive witnesses to our history who deserve new attention.

Jim Nagle was beset with more problems than any 54-year old investment executive could handle. His ex-wife had her lawyers on him, his estranged son was in jail, and the California State Franchise Board was chasing him for back taxes. It seemed that everyone was against him. The topper of it all was that his business was growing so fast he was mismanaging it. Then, in a single moment of a heartbeat, his life was changed forever. A freak accident thrust Nagle back 145 years in time.

. Decades of incremental changes created a distinctive watercraft, and the steamboat became perfectly suited to the conditions of the western rivers, transforming the west from a wilderness into a place of economic significance. In The Western River Steamboat, nautical archaeologist Adam I. Kane traces the development of this once commonplace vessel. Kane describes the importance and impact of the steamboat in American history and complements his historical analysis with clear, concise technical explanations of the construction and evolution of western river steamboats.