Description
Book SynopsisA reinterpretation of a key moment in the political history of the United Statesand of the Americans who sought to decouple American ideals from US territory. Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist UniversityMost Americans know that the state of Texas was once the Republic of Texasan independent sovereign state that existed from 1836 until its annexation by the United States in 1846. But few are aware that thousands of Americans, inspired by Texas, tried to establish additional sovereign states outside the borders of the early American republic. In Breakaway Americas, Thomas Richards, Jr., examines six such attempts and the groups that supported them: patriots who attempted to overthrow British rule in Canada; post-removal Cherokees in Indian Territory; Mormons first in Illinois and then the Salt Lake Valley; Anglo-American overland immigrants in both Mexican California and Oregon; and, of course, Anglo-Americans in Texa
Trade ReviewBreakaway Americas is an important book in that it reminds historians that contingency mattered in helping to shape the eventual borders of the United States.
—Michael A. Hill,
American Nineteenth Century HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. The Texas Moment
Chapter Two. Perfecting America in Canada
Chapter Three. Mormon Zion and the Quest for an American Theocracy
Chapter Four. The Cherokee Nation and the Quest for a Native Republic
Chapter Five. The Seigneurial Republic of California
Chapter Six. The White Yeomen's Republic of Oregon
Chapter Seven. The End of the Texas Moment
Epilogue
Notes
Index
