The Tide of Empire: America's March to the Pacific

by Michael Golay

A vivid tableau of the American conquest of the Pacific Coast

"With Broughton's expedition, the Americans and the British had posted competing claims to a vast expanse of the Pacific Northwest. The area in contention would encompass all of present Oregon and Washington and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and British Columbia. Robert Gray, the dour Yankee trader, and William Broughton, the obscure British naval officer, nonentities both, sailed away from the misty coasts of the Columbia in 1792, never to return. They had no way of knowing, of course, how it would all end. But the breathtaking effrontery of their claims set in motion events of fateful consequence, touching off a half-century of trade and diplomatic rivalry, a flood of Euroamerican settlement, and the displacement and virtual destruction of the immemorial inhabitants of what the contestants would come to call the Oregon Country."
-from THE TIDE OF EMPIRE

400 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2003

Reviews

[Anthony Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have benefited from a more focused narrative, gets a little repetitive as it tracks through various stories

[Tom Darrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focuses a bit too much in depth on two subjects, rather than painting a broader picture. The work on Fremont isn't all that groundbreaking. Additionally, the book is a bit too long for the topic it covers.