Westward Movement in the United States
Book Review of Westward Movement by Historian R. Allen Billington
Allen R. Billington successfully described the Mississippi Valley in his book Westward Movement in the United States. His goal was to reveal the tribulations of the pioneers as they moved west. He further emphasized how the pioneers with integrity adapted to the “mosaic of differing environments that they conquered”.
Billington thoroughly looks into the settlement of the United States stating that not one particular people, economy or industrialization shaped the United States. It was all those together.
Europeans Settling Western Coast of the Mississippi
The book takes the reader in the direction to think “if easterners were not stimulated to move west what would have become of the land/territory that lays west of the Mississippi River?” It is very likely that it would have fell under English or Spanish rule. If that had been the case, how different would the United States be today?
This book brings facts of history to the top and provokes thought. For example, the movement west had a pattern. First the traders and fur trappers traveled west. They ventured over the Appalachian Mountains to see what lay beyond them. Once they gathered the information they brought their stories back to the east and told their friends, family, and anyone else who would listen to them. Their stories consisted of hunts and wide-opened spaces.
Following the trappers and fur traders were the miners. They searched for gold in Colorado and California. Soon the cattlemen came searching for the ideal grassland where herds of cattle could roam and graze without worry of the farmers. Speculators scoped out land they would sell to the highest bidder. Many people traveled west with high hopes and dreams who were willing to pay anything to have their dreams come true.
As the people, traveled west towns began to spring up. Billington specified how the new found towns needed “grist mills, distilleries, merchants, lawyers, county editors, and a host of others alert to the profits awaiting those who could provide needed services for the expending communities”. Billington stated that the coming of these men and women began the pioneering period.
Vivid Written Words Help Explains Westward Migration
The authors language was simple, vivid and understandable. He specified each westward movement from New England to the mid Atlantic states, from there the settling of the southern states and onward to the interior to the Pacific Ocean. His vividness puts the reader in the middle of settlements, battles and the various decisions that were made to expand the United States.
From this book the reader will take that Americans were risk takers from the signing of the United States Constitution to present day America. The American character has been shaped by disappointments and celebrations.
Source:
Billington, R. Allen. Westward Movement in the United States. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1959.
Westward Movement
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