West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776

by Claudio Saunt

In 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, the Continental Congress declared independence, and Washington crossed the Delaware. We are familiar with these famous moments in American history, but we know little about the extraordinary events occurring that same year far beyond the British colonies. In this distinctive history, Claudio Saunt tells an intriguing, largely untold story of an immense and restless continent connected in surprising ways.

In that pivotal year, the Spanish established the first European colony in San Francisco and set off a cataclysm for the region’s native residents. The Russians pushed into Alaska in search of valuable sea otters, devastating local Aleut communities. And the British extended their fur trade from Hudson Bay deep into the continent, sparking an environmental revolution that transformed America’s boreal forests.

While imperial officials in distant Europe maneuvered to control lands they knew almost nothing about, America's indigenous peoples sought their own advantage. Creek Indians navigated the Caribbean to explore trade with Cuba. The Osages expanded their dominion west of the Mississippi River, overwhelming the small Spanish outposts in the area. And the Sioux advanced across the Dakotas. One traditional Sioux history states that they first seized the Black Hills, the territory they now consider their sacred homeland, in 1776. "Two nations were born that year," Saunt writes. The native one would win its final military victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn one hundred years later.

From the Aleutian Islands to the Gulf Coast and across the oceans to Europe’s imperial capitals, Saunt’s masterfully researched narrative reveals an interconnected web of history that spans not just the forgotten parts of North America but the entire globe.

Richly illustrated, with maps that re-envision a familiar landscape, West of the Revolution explores a turbulent continent in a year of many revolutions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, American Revolution, American Revolutionary War, American, 18th Century

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 2014

About the author

Claudio Saunt is the Richard B. Russell Professor in American History at the University of Georgia. He is the author of award-winning books, including A New Order of Things; Black, White, and Indian; and West of the Revolution. He lives in Athens, Georgia.

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book. It promised to tell what was happening in the other regions of North America while the 13 colonies declared and fought for their independence from Great Britain.

There stories cover wide geographical areas of the continent and in each there is a note of what went on in the colonies of the east coast at the parallel date. For instance, the expedition to seek a route linking Spain's Santa Fe settlement with the one in Monterey, although delayed, was scheduled to start July 4, 1776. There is material on American Horse's documents of his people's discovery of the Black Hills as 1775-1776 and why some consider it a ploy to put the Sioux on equal footing, both in both image and law, with the emerging nation to its east.

There is something missing in these stories and it might be an overgeneralization to say the trees were described and the forest missed. This is certainly true of the chapter on the Hudson Bay Company where there is a lot of text on beavers: what they ate, how they built dams, how they changed the eco-system. It is similarly true of the Santa Fe to Monterey expedition where the emphasis is on small events of the trip.

I was expecting more on the longer term significance. For instance, the section on Alaska shows the strained relationship of the Russian traders and the Aleuts. The chapter ends with the Spanish ambassador in Moscow worried about Russian voyages to the new world (i.e. threatening Spain's interests in California) but there is no follow up. Neither is the question (in my mind) of Russia and the low grade war with the Aleuts: did Tzar Alexander II sell this land so cheaply 100 or so years later to rid himself of this problem? While the chapter on the Black Hills strays into the creation of Mount Rushmore, the more significant later development for the Lakota (and perhaps the country) is the ongoing sculpture of Crazy Horse.

I was interested to read about the successful trading of the Osage and Creek, especially the Creeks trading with Cuba.

The books ends with an "Epilogue" on Captain James Cook leaving England on the Resolution in 1776. This is Cook's third and final voyage in which he reached both Hawaii and Alaska.

The book had enough in its 210 pages to keep me reading. The content, which should have been vibrant, seemed sometimes to be only a stream of facts with no point, which made it a frustrating read.

[Antigone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is a book built on the rather insightful recognition that there must have been more going on in the America of 1776 than the ardent pitch of a revolution. Claudio Saunt, a professor at the University of Georgia, has not only registered this truth but crystalized it in the form of nine extra-revolutionary tableaus that give testimony to actions taking place elsewhere across the country; then a grand wilderness, and soon to be a bustling frontier.

We are taken to Henderson's Transylvania Colony - 22 million acres in the region of North Carolina purportedly purchased from the Cherokee in an effort to establish "a realm of landed gentry and hereditary rule." (Many experimental models of community were sampled at this time - our republic among them.) At the opposite end of the landmass, Alaska's Aleutian Islands were being stripped of their otter population by Russian privateers, driven in mercenary zeal to service the yearnings of Chinese nobility for pelt after pelt after pelt. Down the shoreline a bit we find the Spanish, desperate to erect protective outposts in San Francisco and San Diego, acutely aware as they were of the eventual value of the Pacific Coast. Spain's grip on the continent had genuine scope and could also be found sending out predatory feelers from New Mexico to the Colorado Plateau, in search of the fabled river-route to Monterey and the ocean. Lest we imagine all activity was undertaken by colonializing mischief-makers, Saunt provides additional accounts of the Lakota's discovery of the Black Hills and their subsequent migration, along with a contingent of Creek natives who actually travelled to Cuba to plead for help to end the British occupation of Florida.

It's an interesting journey across this historical landscape...with a single chapter's hitch. The material on the Hudson Bay Company and the deregulation of the Canadian fur trade shoots so far into the particulars of the beaver market that I did despair of ever regaining daylight. Hence, fair warning. And fair hopes, too, that this expansion of historical perspective presages similar books to come.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years ago, when my daughters were still young, we had a Rand McNally Histomap of World History, which isn't a map but a sort of chart showing the rise and fall of civilizations. This book reminded me of the Histomap: it tells what was going on in other parts of North America, and indeed how that was influenced by countries on other continents, in that eventful year, 1776. In the USA, history books for children have a laser focus on those thirteen British colonies on the east coast, but during that same year, what was happening on the west coast, or in that vast unknown midsection, or in Alaska, or in what would become Canada? There was a lot going on, it turns out. In a rather slim book (just about 200 pages of text with a further 50 pages or so of notes), Mr. Saunt covers a fascinating array of cultures. It is interesting to see how they all fit together and how one influences another. He opens the book, in his prologue, with the story of Richard Henderson, a colonist living in North Carolina, who bought (sight unseen, of course) twenty-two million acres of land in the "West", that is, on the other side of the Appalachian mountains, in what would later become Kentucky and Tennessee. He bought this vast property from the Cherokees with what Mr. Saunt says were a few wagonloads of cheap goods. This little tale was of special interest to me since I live in Kentucky, part of Mr. Henderson's hoped for kingdom (which didn't actually work out for him, as Mr. Saunt goes on to detail). He opens with this story because it shows a number of things about the early years of European settlement in North America. First, it was such a large continent, most people were quite ignorant about its extent and geographical features. Second, there were already civilizations living on this vast land, peoples who had cultures that had, over centuries, adapted to what the land offered. Third, the settlement was, by and large, premised on the assumption of acquiring, in the end, wealth. It was often a sort of greed, a will to empire with this whole new land full of exploitable products, ripe for business ventures. Those ventures included Russian fur traders who took the pelts of sea otters from the Aleutian islands to markets in Russia and on to other parts of Europe and even China. They included the push of Spanish colonists (in the beginning, Catholic padres who established missions) up the California coast from Mexico, spurred on by the idea that those Russians traders may try to take over that land before they got to it. Business ventures also included the Hudson Bay Company in what would become Canada, as they trapped and marketed beaver pelts for the wildly popular beaver hats of that day. The beavers were hunted almost to extinction. In the interior, he tells of the ebb and flow of different Native American cultures across the Great Plains, with particular focus on the Lakota Sioux in the Black Hills. Moving a bit east to the the banks of the Mississippi, he tells of the Osage and of the European traders who used the Mississippi. He notes that setting the Mississippi River as a boundary dividing the continent (a boundary set by the Treaty of Paris of 1763) was terribly misguided and created further strife and confusion. Finally, he takes a look at the southeastern part of North America, with trade voyages of the Creek Indians from Florida to Cuba. Mr. Saunt has covered a lot of territory and attempts to pull together a lot of information. It was sometimes a bit disorienting to move from struggles by cultures in one part of the continent to the next, but all in all, it was an interesting overview and it gave me a feel for the interconnectedness of history. I liked his statement in his epilogue:
"The founding fathers courageously declared their independence in 1776, but we recognize today that we are unavoidably and always interdependent, as were our North American forbears: our fortunes depend on distant markets, our health on a profusion of microscopic biota, our food security on climatic change. Those forces and a multitude of others shape our lives in profound and unpredictable ways." (page 211)

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1776, you might remember, there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the British colonies on the eastern seaboard. That was by no means the only important event to happen in North America that year, as West of the Revolution reminds us. Ranging from Alaska, to the SF Bay area...from the Black Hills to Hudson Bay, the revolt against England was not the only thing of importance happening that year. If you are a fan of American history, this really should be on your shelf, next to McCullough and other 18th century historians.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a lot of interesting information in "West of the Revolution." I just couldn't stand the way the book was organized.

As I understood it, the point of the book was to look at 1776 in other parts of North America outside the Thirteen Colonies. The author picked 9 locations to examine.

So far so good. But in his discussion of the locations, he leaped back and forth in time, to the 1760s, to 1804, etc., so much that 1776 got lost (at least for me) in the telling.

It almost seemed to me that the descriptions of 9 locations would have made more sense as scripts for a TV documentary. TV lets one leap around quickly. Indeed, you almost have to. A book needs to flow in one direction, and this one didn't.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book briefly describes the encounters and interactions of Europeans and indigenous Americans from the Aleutian islands to the western Appalachians during the time of the American revolution. Since many Americans have a picture of the 1770s as a time when great and important things are happening along the East Coast of North America while the rest of the continent quietly waited for the British colonists to start marching west, this book is a good corrective. It's fairly brief, but a good introduction and reminder. I learned a lot esp. about the Russian and Spanish interactions with indigenous people along the West coast of North America.

[Ryann · Rating 3 out of 5]

West of the Revolution covers the events that were happening throughout North America while the thirteen colonies were fighting the American Revolution. It touches on the Spanish, Russians, French, Creek Indian and Osage tribes, to name a few. I really liked the premise of this book, but the execution was choppy and too often lacked focus, and the time hops were more than was necessary. Still, I’m glad to have read it and gained a wealth of knowledge on stories that seem to be almost forgotten and untold in American history books.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being out of academia means one can justify reading "popular" works of history. This matters because, let's be frank, most academic works of history are unceasingly boring, unimaginative and of an intellectual worth whose adherents can be counted on the digits of a diphallic terata victim: 22.
There's something to be said for works of history like this one which are just darn fun to read because they give us new perspectives on big, grand things like "what the fuck was up with the rest of North America in 1776" not things like "what was the gender construct inequivalency diaphragm of Sarmaqandi insane aslyums between 801-802 hijra".
So, what the fuck WAS up with En Ay in '76, bro?
Lotsa shit apparently. The first bit is my favorite: wacky Russian furriers supplying the Chinese Empire with otter fur besiege the hapless natives of the Aleutians. This segues into not-too-long chapters on the Spanish reaction (they thought the Russians were about to invade Mexico based on geographical understanding that would rival a modern American's), San Francisco, the exploration of the Colorado Plateau; then we segue to post-1763 Treaty NA and the Canadian plains and beaver madness, the Lakota migration into the Black Hills, Osage, Creek, and lots of other really, really neat stuff.

[Marilyn Getts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for teachers and history buffs. This book helps answer the question of the difference between the world of Washington and Jefferson and the one of Robert E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson. In 1776 Russians were attempting to establish New Russia on the west coast much to the dismay of the Spaniards who had established settlements in what is now California. Slavery was commonplace. Genocide was common place. There is a common belief among Europeans that they are the superior humans in the world and it's their right to subjugate others to their purpose. Each success reinforced that belief. The Hudson Bay Company was destroying the ecosystem in their obsession with obtaining beaver pelts for the European market. Diseases brought from the Old World were killing 1000's of native people. At the same time Tribes were fighting each other for a bigger part of trading markets and they traded slaves. The Creeks were trading with Cuba. The Lakotas entered the Black Hills for the first time.

Using events from the Revolutionary War helps the reader relate these events with the reality of 1776 on the continent. It will shatter your previous held beliefs about what "All men are created equal" meant in the world that favored slavery and slaughter.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book on other aspects of 1776, If I was still teaching the 1st 1/2 of the american History survey, I would assign this.

[Heather]

American history gets all excited about 1776 without ever considering that for most of the continent the fight with the English wasn't the main news.
Alaska
The Russians were running the fur trade.  I was interested in the description of the final destination for these furs in the trade capitals of central Mongolia.  They moved all the way from Alaska to present day northern California.  
California
The Spanish got all excited about the Russians being on the northern California coast.  They were convinced that there was a river running from the interior of the continent to the Pacific because based on European geography there should be.  If the Russians had the coast and could find where the river emptied then they could go upstream and control the interior.  The Spanish didn't want that so they set out to explore everything and claim it for Spain.  
Badlands
I was super skeptical of the claim that the Lakota "discovered" the Badlands in 1776.  First of all, they have origin legends that involve the Badlands.  Second, how did no one trip across this large area previously?  Turns out there was skullduggery afoot.  The Lakota moved west and pushed the people living in the Badlands out in 1776.  They later claimed to have "discovered and settled" the area because "discovered and settled" was working well as an excuse for land grabs by white people.  Good try.  I respect the legal ploy but unfortunately white people are only too comfortable with double standards.

This section also covers other tribes in the middle of the continent.  It gives background on the Osage tribe and their dealings with multiple European powers.  That is great background to Killers of the Flower Moon.  

I had never heard of the extensive trade between natives of Florida and people in Cuba either.  



This book covers a lot in the short period of time.  Because of that it felt like it was hitting highlights of some areas of history that aren't talked about much, but if you wanted to know a lot about something specific, you'd need to find another book.  It leaves a lot of loose ends where you don't know what happened next.  

I listened to the audiobook of this and I wasn't a fan.  The narrator was pretty monotone.  This is a book heavy with dates and names and I would mentally drift off as the narrator droned on.  

Use this book as an introduction to this time in history but don't expect it to tell you the whole story.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1776, the bid of thirteen colonies for independence wasn’t the only interesting goings-on in North America. From Alaska to Cuba, colonial and native powers were fighting, trading, exploring, and competing with one another. West of the Revolution begins with Russian forays into the Aleutian islands, moves south to Calofornia, where Spain frantically attempted to create a safeguard after catching wind of the Russians, and then takes readers across the Rockies and plains until the Mississippi is reached. There, we travel south to Cuba, which was not only a prospering sugar plantation but a potentially powerful trading partner of the Creek people in the Southeast. Brief and full of interest, West of the Revolution not only sheds light on what else was happening in 1776, but provides the context for future developments in American history — the drive towards the Mississippi and the hunger for Florida. There’s also a rare look into Canada, or rather the Hudson Bay area and still later, a region that encompasses both Canadian and American states. A section on the Black Hills, known to Americans as the home of Mt. Rushmore, makes plain their importance to the Sioux and other tribes: the Hills are an oasis of rain in a relatively dry region, and for generations a source of food and materials in lean periods. I discovered this book via a podcast (Ben Franklin’s World) and can pass on the recommendation, no less for the information on Russian and Spanish colonization as for the tour of North America, this most diverse and extraordinary continent.

[James Bechtel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claudio Saunt places the American Revolution in the historical context of other momentous changes in North America circa 1776. This world-historical perspective demonstrates how contingent factors created an unavoidably interdependent continent. Russia, Spain, the Lakota Sioux, the Creeks, Great Britain, and her colonists - all play their significant roles. Many new connections are made. And, once again, excellent maps from unusual projections.

[Rowan Lister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weaves a tapestry of change across North America, dyed with blood, sweat, and tears. Short and to the point, it’s worth reading for anyone wanting to see the revolution in the U.S. put into a greater context, and be thoroughly entertained and enlightened along the way

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot about the interactions between the imperial powers and Native Americans during the colonial period that I didn't know before, which was fantastic and why I picked up the book in the first place!

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars- I enjoyed the content I was unfamiliar with, but many historical factors (e.g. disease) are skimmed over. A good starting point for those who want a quick read on the rest of North America during the American Revolution.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absorbing and accessible introduction to events in other parts of North America while the 13 eastern British colonies were throwing off the shackles of imperial domination. While some of the book covered material I was already familiar with - I've read a lot of Lakota history, for instance - I learnt much I didn't know. I was unaware that the Spanish establishment of missions along the Californian coast (with catastrophic consequences for Native American people) was motivated by a fear of Russian imperial ambitions or that the Creek nation regularly sent envoys to Havana in order to trade with Cuba and to lobby for Spanish assistance in ousting the British from Creek country.

Saunt writes beautifully about the natural world, and I especially liked his wonderful descriptions of the Black Hills and of the impact of beaver populations on the ecology of parts of North America.

Events do not happen in a vacuum, a point Saunt makes by weaving the history of trade, imperial adventures and the devastating impact on Native American nations into a seamless narrative. Everything is connected: the desire of the Beijing imperial court for exotic furs led to Russian brutality against the Aleut people of Alaska; the carving up of North America at the 1763 Treaty of Paris by aristocrats with little knowledge of geography had profound consequences for the Osage people.

West of the Revolution left me wanting to learn more about this often-overlooked history.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no expectations starting this book, the premise intrigued me. Each chapter picks a point on the North America map and tells you what was going on there before, at and soon after 1776 events on the eastern seaboard. I enjoyed it very much as I learned a lot of detail and general context about certain areas that I did not know before.

The author tied in the Russian incursion across the Aleutians soutward and the Spanish colonization northward across California and Alaska, and near the very end, tells how Captain Cook arrived on the east coast in the middle of the Revolution War, and at the behest of Benjamin Franklin, was allowed to pass unmolested on the start of his voyage that would end up on the west coast face to face with the Russians in Alaska. This book is full a little thread of history tying together neatly, that was the main reason I liked it. Note: half the pages are a lengthy Notes section. So over all the book isn't as long as it first seems.

[Aloysius · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all know the story of the American Revolution which took place on the 13 Original Colonies. But what was happening at the same time in other areas of the continent, beyond English dominion? This book gives the answer. From the rebellion in southern Spanish California to the relentless expansion of Russian power over present-day Alaska, the story of these events are laid out in this book. A short but sweet read!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a neat idea, but stretched too thin for a full book - even at 177 pages. It's neat to discover that in 1776 Inuit traders were travelling to the interior of Russia or that the Spanish were finally trying to see what was between New Mexico and California. But these threads are so disparate that the book has little cohesion. Might have been better as a long read National Geographic article.

[Cindy]

Very interesting book about the history of what was taking place in the rest of the US when the revolution was occurring in the east. Things you don't normally find in history books.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

1776 is a year seared into consciousness throughout the United States, due to our intense focus on a legislative chamber in the July heat of Philadelphia, and the evacuation of Boston, the invasion of New York and battles near Trenton, NJ at Christmas. It was a year of ideas and argument from men like Jefferson, Thomas Paine and in Britain, Adam Smith. And it was the year George Washington began the process of being a world-historical leader.

But, as historian Claudio Saunt argues, the events on the eastern seaboard, particularly between Philadelphia and Boston, are just part of a larger story of conflict, settlement and revolutionary changes that were altering the continent and wider world. Saunt, a history professor at the University of Georgia focuses on Russian and native conflict in Alaska and California, Spanish and native matters in the southwest, the pushing westward of the Lakota Sioux, the establishment of trading factories deep in the Canadian wilderness and the southeastern native contact and trading with Spanish Florida and the Carribean.

Tightly written over less than 300 pages, West of the Revolution aims to show how the variety of first contacts, trading systems, native nations, and the feeling about in the dark of European Empires. This is a history that describes European interaction with long-standing native nations and cultures they barely understood, cruelty, understanding, learning, economic trade and a stage of development that was unleashing forces that no really understood.

The conflict between Great Britain and 13 of their 19 North American colonies does not make much of an appearance in this work. In fact in places like San Francisco Bay, Alaska, even Cumberland deep into Canada, what was going on in Philadelphia is not really understood or even heard about. From that perspective, this history is the last glimpse of the world that was, particularly in the arid southwest, where native nations were, for a time, on equal and greater footing than the European Empires at their borders.

This history is well recommended.

[Kris Schnee · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are different lenses for studying history. For early North American history (at least for Americans) the focus is overwhelmingly on the eastern seaboard, its colonies, and the road to revolution. This book helps fill in other pieces of the puzzle that were going on at about the same time as the revolution.

There's a discussion of early land speculation on and beyond the Appalachian Mountains (which was a factor in the war itself and Washington's personal life). There's talk of multiple Indian tribes and how their political and economic future was reshaped by the 1763 treaty of the Seven Years' War, which put some of them under greater or lesser control of particular monarchs. I particularly liked the maps showing how certain tribes suddenly gained or lost trading partners, which was a sort of overlay on more traditional maps of which king claimed which land. There's talk of the Spanish expansion in California as they began to colonize modern San Francisco, and the dangerous expeditions and raids they were involved in. Then there's discussion of how the Russians were heavily involved in exploring Alaska to hunt for furs, and how they repeatedly clashed with the local tribes in an echo of what was happening on the east coast. Amusingly there's a section on Spanish paranoia about the Russian threat to their north. "Sire, see this map?! The Russians are practically here already!"

So, this book helps provide a perspective that I knew little about despite studying early American history. I had also recently read a history of Astoria, an ill-fated attempt to colonize what's now Oregon, so this book ties in well with that.

[Jrobertus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather exotic look at American history. It focuses on people and actions, around 1776, but in the remote west of what would be the country. The book is well researched with lots of quotes and primary references, but it is told with the verve of good thriller novel and keeps the reader engaged. We see the development of Russian fur trade in Alaska, their movement down to California the counter moves be Spain to secure that area for their own interests. The need to supply the missions and presidios of California led to a failed attempt to form a Spanish route from Santa Fe, the great basin and basin and range land broke even the toughest conquistadors. We also see the efforts of the English Hudson’s Bay Company to push their forts away from the bay and into northeast Saskatchewan in order to combat independent fur traders who were beating their time. Trade was also surprisingly extensive between plains Indians, like the Sioux, and the whites. When trade with the English was slowed they sent a delegation to the French in Montreal. Who knew? The Osage in Missouri and Arkansas were a real empire that kept the Spanish on their heels, and they used the English on the east side of the Mississippi to gain leverage in their political battles. Finally, we saw the efforts of the Creek Indians to gain trade and justice from the English settlers in the southeast. They had many missions, for trade and diplomacy, all the way to Havana. I found this narrative so fascinating I was sad to see it come to an end.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

We U.S. citizens were taught so much about the Revolutionary War that freed the American colonies from Britain. The stories abound about the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, the Green Mountain Boys, the Swamp Fox and Washington Crossing the Delaware.
But Claudio Saunt's "West of the Revolution" teaches that so much more about this world-changing period of history was happening in other parts of what was to become the United States and Canada: in Kentucky, Alaska, California, Colorado, the Black Hills, Florida, Arkansas.
Much of what occurred at the time has shown over time to be to the detriment of the people who were living in the land west of the 13 colonies, and it is right that Americans take ownership of those injustices. But this book should be valued even more for the history it shares — history we today would be smart to comprehend, because, well, here's how Saunt explains the thinking:

"The founding father courageously declared their indolence in 1776, but we recognize today that we are unavoidably and always interdependent, as were our North American forebears: our futures depend on distant markets, our health on a profusion of microscopic biota, our food security on climatic change."

[Kimberly Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The clash of the cultures and nature occured in Alaska, the West Coast, El Norte, The Missouri Plains , Tampa and Havana Region, West of the Appalacians Mid South, Upper Mid West corner of the Dakotas, and the all across Canada from the East to the middle territories.

In all cases competition for the environment, decimation of cultures and native habitat, death, cruelty, trade, selling off American territory at the expense of Natives and deal after deal with natives over land was broken.

Farming, livestock and hunting to fulfill the orders from around the world would change North America in a very short time. In stead of learning from the cultures that had lived on the land for generations who knew to adapt to weather and circumstance, Europeans transplanted a culture they had always lived. In every locale despite the environmental circumstances and without regard to the outcome of their own survival, natures, or the Indians Europeans forever altered America at the time of the Revolution.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

"West of the Revolution" was fascinating. Aside from the American Revolution, what was going on on the continent in 1776? Turns out quite a lot, from Spanish missions to Russian fur trading to the British Hudson's Bay Company to the various native American tribes.
At times succinct, at times long winded; this book tells the story and tries from the beginning to connect it all. As I read it I strughled at times with the direction of the author, but it was interesting if at times a bit tedious in its detail.
In the end, the epilogue did a good job putting a nice wrap on the work, telling how the events and effects of all were unpredictable yet interconnected. Who could say at the time where this would all lead? The same can be said today in North America.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've all heard about the American Revolution centered around Boston in 1776. But what else was happening in the Americas at the same time? How was the rest of the world affected by the commonly known events? The Russians were killing Aleuts in an effort to get at the sea otter pelts, Spain was worried about Russia coming down the coast and interfering with their expansionist interests, the Osages played one power against the other, the Crees and others of Canada took advantage of the hapless Hudson Bay Company employees, and Creeks were being squeezed. All interesting to know and well told, though most was not of the "jump up and immediately share" variety. It was good to hear completely different perspectives to familiar events.

[Alanna Spinrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books goes into all the other changes that were happening everywhere on the American continent at the same time we were battling for our independence from England. There were vast changes going on everywhere.

It struck me that the indigenous population in the San Francisco area was already beginning to shrink before the Spanish even arrived. There were too many vying for too few resources. It didn't dawn on me that the indigenous tribes could suffer from over population. It also surprised me that the Creek Nation in the south was such a power force. Eventually, however, they were overwhelmed by the whites.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history looks at the territories that would eventually become part of the United States, but were not the original 13 colonies, at the time of the American Revolution. Spain and Russia vied to build settlements on the West Coast, and Native Americans lived throughout much of the central part of the country. The author does a nice job in highlighting the different cultural influences in different parts of the country, but I would have liked for him to bring the story up to the current day by looking at how these influences were important once the various territories joined the US. As it stands, the story he tells is very limited in scope.