The Course of Empire (American Heritage Library)
by Bernard DeVoto

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Summary of The Course of Empire (American Heritage Library)

In exploiting the West's resources, trappers, priests and explorers had to find new ways of navigating, mapping, and staking territorial claims. Eventually they made alliances amongst some of the native inhabitants and war upon hostiles and interlopers in order to protect their nation's trade routes. This unique political economy, according to DeVoto, ultimately shaped the budding republic's belief that it was destined to rule the continent. By emphasizing how indigenous social and environmental factors effected the protocols of conquest, The Course of Empire foreshadowed cultural studies such as Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land and Richard Slotkin's trilogy of books on "the myth of the American frontier." Its linkage of geography to the concept of empire also puts it in dialogue with the histories of William Cronon and Donald Worster. In a field marked by rapid conceptual change, DeVoto's analysis has retained its relevance to the present day. --John M. Anderson

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• Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Royalty
• History > Americas > United States > 19th Century