|
|
Sold Out
Book Categories |
Race relations were an important driving force in the move to settle the West, as the political records and personal accounts show. Race to the Frontier provides an analysis of this little-discussed but essential facet of American history. Why did so many thousands of settlers pull up stakes and undertake the arduous journey to the frontier in 18th- and 19th-century America. While the desire for a more prosperous future figured prominently in their decisions, so did another, largely overlooked factor - the presence of slavery and the growing number of blacks, both free and slave, in the eastern half of the United States. Poor white farmers, particularly those in the Upper South, found themselves displaced by the spreading of the plantation system. In order to survive economically they were chronically forced to move further inland. As they did so, they brought with them a deep animosity toward the enslaved blacks - and the freedmen -whom they blamed for this uprooting. Wherever these "plain folk" farmers subsequently settled - in Kentucky, the free states north of the Ohio River, Missouri, and the outpost of Oregon, they sought to erect legal barriers to prevent slavery from taking hold as well as to deter the migration of free blacks who would otherwise compete for jobs and endanger white society. The pushing back of the frontier can be seen as an attempt to escape the complexities of a biracial nation and preserve white homogeneity by creating sanctuaries in these Western lands. The political struggle to establish more free states west of the Mississippi also reflects this goal: white nominally opposed to slavery, many "free staters" were most concerned about keeping all blacks atbay. Race to the Frontier is the first book to trace the impact of this racial hostility throughout the settlement of the West, from the days of colonial Virginia up to the Civil War. It clearly demonstrates how closely racial prejudice, economic growth, and geographical expansion have been entwined in American history. * John H. V. Dippel is author of World War II - Two Against Hitler and Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire. His articles on political affairs have appeared in such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and The New Leader. A graduate of Princeton University, John Dippel also holds advanced degrees.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Randy Gaylord
reviewed Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion on May 16, 2013
Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion
Four stars, though I admit being torn between three and four stars. Honestly, three and a half. I would happily say four if I hadn't gotten completely bogged down in the long middle section of the book giving the history of American whaling ports.
The political background on the American whaling colonies didn't interest me nearly as much as the material on whaling itself - the lives and methods of the whalers, details of ships, whaling grounds, and so on. As a result, I put this book aside sometime last year and never managed to pick it up again until about a week ago, when I doggedly ploughed through the (to me) drier middle section into some (again, to me) livelier chapters (chapters 14-19, to be precise) which provided the information on whalers and whaling that I'd hoped to find.
On the whole, I enjoyed the author's approach to the subject, which gave me enough information to understand unfamiliar material but wasn't overwhelming. As a bonus, I've read a fair number of books on overlapping and related events mentioned in this book, such as In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, and recently have been reading Patrick O'Brien's famed Aubrey/Maturin series along with a few other nonfiction nautical books, which largely account for my decision to pick this book up once again. To put it simply, I'm on a bit of a seafaring book binge.
As another reviewer, Matt, has pointed out, this book tends to be anecdotal, and the quality of the anecdotes varies. While I am, on the whole, usually fond of such books, I do wish there had been some underlying theme to unify these anecdotes in a more cohesive way.
However, having said that, I do have a much better picture of whaling as an industry and a better appreciation for its economic role, a surprisingly significant one, in our nation's history. I was surprised to learn, for example, that in 1846, 735 ships out of a worldwide total of 900 whaling ships were American, and that at the height of the "Golden Age" of whaling (1812 to the late 1850s), whaleships accounted for "roughly of the nation's registered merchant tonnage" and employed approximately 70,000 people.
I have two of the author's other books, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America and When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail on my to-read list and am looking forward to reading them. All in all, these books by Eric Jay Dolin promise to be fine additions to my growing "commodity history" shelf.
Login|Complaints|Blog|Games|Digital Media|Souls|Obituary|Contact Us|FAQ
CAN'T FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR? CLICK HERE!!! X
You must be logged in to add to WishlistX
This item is in your Wish List
X
This item is in your Collection
Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion
X
This Item is in Your Inventory
Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion
X
You must be logged in to review the productsX
X
X
Add Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion, Race relations were an important driving force in the move to settle the West, as the political records and personal accounts show. Race to the Frontier provides an analysis of this little-discussed but essential facet of American history. Why did so many, Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
X
Add Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion, Race relations were an important driving force in the move to settle the West, as the political records and personal accounts show. Race to the Frontier provides an analysis of this little-discussed but essential facet of American history. Why did so many, Race to the Frontier: White Flight and Westward Expansion to your collection on WonderClub |