Description
Book SynopsisTo most people living in the West, the Louisiana Purchase made little difference: the United States was just another imperial overlord to be assessed and manipulated. However, this was not, as
Empires, Nations, and Families makes clear, virgin wilderness discovered by virtuous Anglo entrepreneurs. Rather, the United States was a newcomer in a place already complicated by vying empires.
Trade Review"Hyde weaves her stories together to create a solid and provocative argument in
Empires, Nations, and Families, a book that is not only well researched and presented but instantly absorbing."—Adrienne Caughfield,
Journal of American History"Students of the Great Plains and the nineteenth-century West in general, at whatever level, will be well rewarded by a reading of Anne Hyde's fine book."—Walter Nugent,
Great Plains Quarterly "Hyde's volume is a superb telling of a tale familiar to students of the American West but presented in a new, enlivening manner that will make readers remember why they love frontier American history so very much."—Patricia Ann Owens,
The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society“The nuanced and complex narrative contextualizes the experiences of individuals, families, and communities. . . . Taking a unique approach that emphasizes the importance of family networks and integrating a newer generation of scholarship to explain the social and cultural dynamics of the West, Hyde has produced a substantial and highly original interpretation of the period [1800–61]. . . . An excellent work and a major contribution to the historiography of the North American West.”—John Husmann, South Dakota History
“The strength of [Hyde’s] work lies in her ability to assemble and integrate a vast amount of secondary work into a thematic framework that emphasizes the important role kinship structures played in shaping the economic and social structures of the West prior to 1860.”—James E. Sherow, Kansas History
“This is an important and useful book, and it should find a large readership.”—Katrine Barber, Oregon Historical Quarterly
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
List of MapsAcknowledgments: Adventures in the Land of the Dead
Introduction: The Geography of Empire in 1804
St. Louis
Michilimackinac
Santa Fe
The Pacific Coast Family Stories
“Died Single”
Why Fur and Why Families?
Sources and Definitions
Maps and Signposts
Part I: Replacing a State: The Continental Web of Family Trade
Chapter 1: Families and Fur: The Personal World of the Early American West
The Chouteau Family and Missouri River World
“Middle Ground” or “Native Ground”?
“Tough Love” and Family Loyalty
On the Trail of Wealth and Opportunity
The Sublette Brothers and Their Family Business
Chasing Fortune and Family
Americans in Mexico, Californios in America
Dangerous Places
Chapter 2: Fort Vancouver’s Families: The Custom of the Country
Cogs in the Fur Trade
The Local and Global Communities of the Columbia
The Métis World of John McLoughlin
The Tentacles of International Trade
The McLoughlins and the Company
Life and Work on the Columbia
Global Ambitions
The Fine Mesh of the Family Network
Immigrants, Nations, and the Loss of a Family Empire
Murder at Fort Stikine and Suicide in California
Chapter 3: Three Western Places: Regional Communities and
Vecinidad
William Bent’s Border World
Bent's Fort and Its Neighborhood
Omens and Weddings
Norteños and Yanquis in Alta California
Captain Sutter's New Helvetia
Dinner and Diplomacy in Northern California
Portents of Change
Stephen Austin’s Border World
Planting Colonies in Texas
Austin's Fractious Neighborhood
PART II: Americans All: The Mixed World of Indian Country
Chapter 4: The Early West: The Many Faces of Indian Country
Cherokee, Shawnee, and Osage
The View from Fort Osage
The View from St. Louis
Change, Loss, and Warfare on the Missouri
The Arikara War
Métis and Half-Breed in an Anglo West
Chapter 5: Empires in Transition: Indian Country at Midcentury, 1825-1860
Counting Indians
Expanding Power
The Santa Fe Trail
Native Nations and Texas Revolution
Retrenchment and Resistance
The Osage and Accommodation on the Arkansas
Good Fathers and the Fur Trade
Captivity Tales and Epidemic Disease
PART III: From Nations to Nation: Imposing a State, 1840-1865
Chapter 6: Unintended Consequences: Families, Nations, and the Mexican War
What if Guadelupe Boggs married Teresina Carson?
Questions of Citizenship and Identity
Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormonism
Mexican Revolutions
Continental Rumor Factories
The Bent Family and the Vagaries of War
Bent’s Choice
Brigham Young and the Choices of War
Hard Choices in California
The McLoughlins’ Choice
Chapter 7: Border Wars: Disorder and Disaster in the 1850s
The Evolving Fur Trade World
Postwar Family and Business on the Arkansas
Indian War in the Pacific Northwest
Oregon's Bloody Legacy
The Failure of Warfare and Washington’s Native Nations
Nation-Building in the Southwest
Raising Families and Fighting Wars
Chapter 8: The State and its Handmaidens: Imposing Order
Civil Threats and the Mormons
The Personal Politics of Polygamy and Theocracy
The Almost War and the Massacre in Utah
Conquest and Chaos in California
A Nation of Squatters
While Kansas Bled and Native People Fled
The Pesky Details of Popular Sovereignty
A National Horror Show
The Minnesota Uprising of 1862
Sand Creek and the Bent Family Nightmare
Epilogue: How it All Turned Out
Sonoma
Los Angeles
Taos
The Arkansas River
Oregon
St. Louis
Kawsmouth
Notes
BibliographyIndex
