Portland Public Library

History of the westward movement, Frederick Merk

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

History of the westward movement

bibliography

3516560

Frederick Merk

The late American historian's final work chronicles the great Western migration, from the first forays in New England's wilderness in the seventeenth century to the full settlement of the Pacific coast

The Indian background -- Indian culture -- The Virginia tidewater -- Seventeenth century expansion of Virginia -- The Massachusetts Bay Colony -- Expansion of New England -- The Piedmont and Great Valley -- The French and Indian barrier -- The seven years' war in America -- British western policy, 1763-75 -- Terrain of the interior -- Land speculators and settlers enter the Allegheny Plateau -- The West in the war of the American Revolution and in the Peace Treaty of 1783 -- Land cessions by the states -- Land policy and the principle of equality of states -- Postwar land speculation -- The west in the War of 1812 -- Advance over the Allegheny Plateau -- The southwest in American diplomacy, 1783-1803 -- The northwest in American diplomacy, 1783-95 -- Settlement of the prairie and lake plains -- Prairie and lake plains: economy, society, and politics -- Settlement of the gulf plains province -- Gulf plains: economy, society, and politics -- The slavery issue and the unification of the south -- Internal commerce and internal improvements -- The tariff as a sectional issue -- Trans-Mississippi trade -- The Mississippi Valley frontier and its outlets to the far West -- Texas -- The movement for annexation and the defeat of the treaty -- The Mormons -- The public lands, 1800-62 -- Physiography of the far West -- Annexation achieved -- The Oregon question -- California -- The Bear Flag Revolt -- The war with Mexico -- The issue of slavery in the new territories and the Compromise of 1850 -- The Kansas-Nebraska Act and bleeding Kansas -- Mining advance across the cordilleran West -- Plains and mountain Indians and the Dawes Act of 1887 -- The Dred Scott decision -- The West and slavery, 1856-60 -- Agriculture in the Middle West and the Granger and Greenback movements -- Industrialization of the Great Lakes region -- Great plains and cattlemen -- Farmers on the Great Plains -- Populism -- Dry farming -- Mining techniques of the twentieth century -- Early irrigation and the Colorado River projects -- The Columbia basin and central valley projects -- The Tennessee Valley Authority and its role as model for western river basin development -- The Missouri and Arkansas basin projects and the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965 -- Soil conservation -- Agricultural overproduction and production control to 1941 -- Agriculture and farm policy during and after World War II -- The Kennedy-Johnson years in farm policy -- Farm tenancy and its decline: a century of change -- Migratory farm labor, 1900-75 -- American Indians, 1934-74 -- Land-use planning -- Afterword