In Marriage, Violence and the Nation in the American Literary West, William R. Handley examines literary interpretations of the Western American past. Handley argues that although scholarship provides a narrative of western history that counters optimistic story of frontier individualism by focusing on the victims of conquest, twentieth-century American fiction tells a different story of intra-ethnic violence surrounding marriages and families. He examines works of historiography,as well as writing by Zane Grey, Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner and Joan Didion among others, to argue that these works highlight white Americans' anxiety about what happens to American 'character' when domestic enemies such as Indians and Mormon polygamists, against whom the nation had defined itself in the nineteenth century, no longer threaten its homes. Handley explains that once its enemies are gone, imperialism brings violence home in retrospective narratives that allegorise national pasts and futures through intimate relationships.
William Taylor's Cavalier and Yankee was one of the most famous works of American history written in the 1960s. The book is an intellectual history of the South before the Civil War, the perception of it in the North, and the effect it had upon the nation in the years from 1800 to 1860. First published in 1961 and out of print for several years, Taylor's classic study remains essential to the study of the pre-Civil War South.
The beautiful mountains of south-central West Virginia can be simultaneously challenging and rewarding to travelers. Pre-Columbian First Nations people traversed the Allegheny Mountain Range for thousands of years before European settlers arrived. The natural mountain barrier stood as a formidable challenge to the newcomers. Union and Confederate forces traversed West Virginia, but artillery trails and oxen paths were ill-suited for trucks and automobiles. During World War II, Allied forces witnessed the significance of Germany's autobahn in terms of troop movement. Still, planning for a US interstate highway system evolved slowly. In 1947, leaders in the West Virginia State Legislature approved funds to build a turnpike from Wheeling to Princeton. Cost concerns prompted legislative leaders to modify the plan and select a route from Charleston to Princeton. The southern part of the two-lane version of the turnpike opened to nationwide acclaim in 1955. The unrivaled beauty of the 88-mile superhighway; the incredible travel time savings and attractions, including Tamarack--a marketplace for West Virginia artists and artisans; and a conference center have transformed the West Virginia Turnpike into an attractive destination excellent for visiting travelers as well as West Virginians.
Appropriately nicknamed "the Pathfinder," John C. Fremont blazed many trails across the Wild West. Fremont carved paths over the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains. He led expeditions through uncharted wilderness and provided the first useful maps of California and Oregon. However, Fremont did more than explore. As a soldier, he helped California fight for its independence and served as one of the state's first senators. Authors William R. Sanford and Carl R. Green reveal the remarkable life of the Pathfinder.
Buffalo Bill rode his speedy horse toward a herd of buffalo. With careful aim, Bill dropped a buffalo with one shot. Before the day ended, he bagged ten more. In less than eighteen months, he had killed thousands. His nickname quickly spread throughout the Wild West. Buffalo Bill had many jobs, Pony Express rider, scout, soldier, buffalo hunter, but he was most famous for entertaining audiences with his Wild West show. Many Americans and others around the world could not travel to see the real Wild West, so Buffalo Bill brought it to them.
Bill Pickett urged his horse forward chasing after the speedy steer. Like an acrobat, Pickett jumped onto the steer's back, grabbing it by the horns. In the same motion, he twisted the steer's neck up and bit its upper lip with his teeth. Instantly, he had the steer on the ground as the crowd roared in delight. Bill Pickett invented this exciting event, known as bulldogging. Despite the racism he faced as an African-American cowboy, Pickett entertained rodeo crowds around the world. Authors William R. Sanford and Carl R. Green explore the life of this courageous rodeo superstar.
THE COVERED WAGON In the early 1840's thousands of emigrants came out West via wagon train on the Oregon Trail seeking rich farmland and a better way of life. Others came for the gold and the riches it could bring. THE WIND BLEW HIM WEST is a true story of my pioneer father, David M. Sutton born in New Jersey in 1842, who was shipped west on the Oregon Trail by his Quaker father at the beginning of the Civil War. His father Jacob, with his abhorrence of war, sent his son west to keep him out of it. At the tender age of twenty, young David left for Omaha, Nebraska where he met wagon master Captain Leroy Crawford and crossed the plains in oxen-driven covered wagons in 1862. The Oregon Trail began on the banks of the Missouri River in Independence, Missouri (the jumping-off point) and ended on the banks of the Willamette River at Oregon City, Oregon. The Oregon Trail has been called "The Trail That Won the West.
What was Calamity Jane's real name? Was she a horse thief and a preacher's daughter? Did she actually serve under General George Custer? The truth and myth are difficult to separate in the wild life of Calamity Jane. An independent spirit, she never stayed in one place for long. She worked as a gold prospector, bullwhacker, nurse, and had many other jobs. Calamity Jane refused to conform to the typical roles of nineteenth-century women. Authors William R. Sanford and Carl R. Green reveal the true story of this legendary American figure.
A century and a half before the Kennedys and the Clintons, the Fremonts and the Custers were American power couples. Indeed, John and Jessie Fremont, and George and Libbie Custer pioneered the phenomenon. So what made the Fremonts and Custers so famous? In popular culture, the husbands became all-American if tarnished heroes. Fremont was renowned as "the Pathfinder" who mapped swaths of the West in five expeditions and helped lead America's conquest of California from Mexico. His fame and anti-slavery views got him nominated as the newborn Republican Party's presidential candidate in the 1856 election. During the Civil War, Custer was celebrated as the "boy-general" who led cavalry charges that routed rebel forces in a score or more combats. He achieved immortality for the "last stand" of him and 262 of his men against thousands of Indian warriors during the battle of the Bighorn, an epic defeat nearly as culturally powerful as America's Thermopylae, the Alamo. Fremont and Custer epitomized the themes and lived their own adventurous versions of the Odyssey and Iliad, respectively. But above all they helped spearhead "Manifest Destiny," the belief that Americans have a God-given right to expand their nation across the continent and even beyond to the ends of the earth. Then there were their wives. Although little known today, Jessie and Libbie were nearly as famous as their husbands. Each served as her husband's political muse, offering candid advice and spurring him to ever higher ambitions. Both were beautiful, vivacious women who loved entertaining and being the center of attention. They knew how to appropriately wield their charms so that they inspired admiration rather than unwanted advances from men or jealousy from women. They were courageous women who followed their husbands to war, the frontier, and even into the wilderness where they endured extremes of bone-numbing cold, stifling heat, deluges, and swarms of mosquitoes; resided in drafty tents or cabins; and at times feared being victims of violence. The Fremonts and Custers were powerhouses as literary as well as political couples. All four authored books and articles, although overall the ladies were better writers. Proudly backed by their wives, Fremont and Custer committed epic acts in epic times that brought them enormous fame. Yet eventually each self-destructed, Fremont with an accumulating series of disastrous decisions as an explorer, general, politician, and businessman; Custer spectacularly at the Little Bighorn. The reason was simple--serious character flaws made each man his own worst enemy. Had Shakespeare been born three centuries later, his plays on the Fremonts and Custers would likely rank with Macbeth, Lear, Hamlet, Richard III, or Julius Caesar. Hubris was the Achilles heel of both men. Becoming adored heroes at an early age warped each to believe that he could get away with anything. Once extolled as symbolizing America's greatest traits of courage, decisiveness, and ingenuity, with time John Fremont, George Custer, and, by extension their "enabling wives," have increasingly been reviled for representing imperialism, racism, and genocide. It is long past due for a critical reappraisal. As usual the truth shifts mostly far from the extremes. The Old West's First Power Couples neither celebrates nor demonizes John and Jessie Fremont, and George and Libbie Custer. Instead each is explored as an extraordinary, gifted, flawed, unique individual who was half of a unique couple that made history and advanced America's Manifest Destiny"--
McDowell County was established by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1858, two years before the start of the American Civil War. In 1863, the county was one of the 55 that separated from the Old Dominion to form West Virginia, thus earning the nickname the Free State. Long before this, though, McDowell County was known for its bountiful natural resources; a great geologist, Dr. Thomas Walker, touted these vast coal lands after his 17481750 exploration. Political leaders like Thomas Jefferson, who knew of the countys mineral wealth, steered Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution, to obtain all of McDowell County in the land speculation boom of the mid-1790s. After Morris was sent to debtors prison in 1799, however, his land holdings were acquired by Michael Bouvier, a cabinet maker. In the 1920s, the remains of Bouviers holdings were purchased by Henry Ford, the automobile tycoon. Other famous personalities associated with McDowell County include J.P. Morgan and Thomas Stonewall Jackson.
Annotation. Organometallic chemistry is an interdisciplinary science which continues to grow at a rapid pace. Although there is continued interest in synthetic and structural studies the last decade has seen a growing interest in the potential of organometallic chemistry to provide answers to problems in catalysis synthetic organic chemistry and also in the development of new materials. This Specialist Periodical Report aims to reflect these current interests reviewing progress in theoretical organometallic chemistry, main group chemistry, the lanthanides and all aspects of transition metal chemistry. Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage of progress in the major areas of chemical research. Written by experts in their specialist fields the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, supplying regular critical in-depth accounts of progress in particular areas of chemistry. For over 80 years the Royal Society of Chemistry and its predecessor, the Chemical Society, have been publishing reports charting developments in chemistry, which originally took the form of Annual Reports. However, by 1967 the whole spectrum of chemistry could no longer be contained within one volume and the series Specialist Periodical Reports was born. The Annual Reports themselves still existed but were divided into two, and subsequently three, volumes covering Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. For more general coverage of the highlights in chemistry they remain a 'must'. Since that time the SPR series has altered according to the fluctuating degree of activity in various fields of chemistry. Some titles have remained unchanged, while others have altered their emphasis along with their titles; some have been combined under a new name whereas others have had to be discontinued. The current list of Specialist Periodical Reports can be seen on the inside flap of this volume.
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