Description
Book SynopsisBy 1830, many other important national concerns had become critically entangled with land disposition, creating points of ideological tension among rival regions, parties, and interests in the early years of the republic-particularly in Jacksonian America.
Trade ReviewVan Atta's study of the multifaceted discussions taking place in Congress and throughout the nation provides a welcome level of sophistication, with implications for our understanding of nineteenth-century American governance far beyond the context of land policy. -- Stephen J. Rockwell H-SHEAR Solidly researched, well written, and cogently argued. -- Robert M. Owens Middle West Review ...[Securing the West] quite ably and engagingly synthesize[s] and present[s] the concerns of policy makers while avoiding what might have been a parade of subtly differing public land distribution bills. -- Tamara Venit Shelton The Journal of American History A compelling account of how this issue [of land] went to the heart of the competing, shifting visions Americans had of their new country and its future. American Historical Review Van Atta's emphasis on the social implications of the development of western land policies makes several important historiographic contributions... Most important, Van Atta's analysis of the larger moral and cultural nuances involved in western land politics further illustrates the significance of the region in the development of the United States. Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Table of ContentsList of Maps
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue: "A Great Country, Populous and Mighty"
1. "Republican Notions—and Utopian Schemes"
2. An Embryo of Empire
3. Rise of the Radical West
4. "A World within Itself"
5. Foot's Resolution and the "Great Debate"
6. Whose West?—Alternative Visions
7. "A Lawless Rabble"
Epilogue: The West Secured?
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index
