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The Plains Across : The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60
One of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in History and the winner of seven awards, including the John H. Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association, the Ray A. Billington Book Award of the Organization of American Historians, and the National Historical Society Book Prize.
592 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 20, 2018
Well researched and well written; its readability does not hide its scholarliness. This book is so rich in details that it's doubtful the author left out anything from this study of the Oregon & California trails. I liked the way he structured the book. Instead of a year by year history, the chapters covers specific areas of impact, such as the subsidiary businesses that sprung up, the federal support, the Mormon impact, etc. He covers the trials & tribulations of the emigrants and the roots to the myths that have come out of this migration period.
October 14, 2018
If you are going to read about the westward migration across the Plains, this is the book to read. Comprehensive, well documented and very well written, the book is one of those rare doctoral thesis that becomes a wonderful book for a wide audience. Ten years to write, it is a beautiful contribution to the history of America's westward expansion. The bibliography contains a wealth of research material that you could spend a lifetime reading with enjoyment.
March 29, 2013
This is an incredible book telling of the cross country wagon train experience. It tells so much more than we are accustomed to hearing. About the eastbound traffic, the casualties from gun accidents, the relief expeditions for the West Coast, the competition in jumping off places. This is a totally new look at the Westward migration.
February 28, 2014
This book is a very comprehensive volume on the Oregon and California trails. It seems to cover every aspect of the journey from preparation to arrival; and the trials the emigrants went through to get to the other side of the Sierra Nevadas. I highly recommend this book for students of the American West, specifically of Westward migration.
August 3, 2011
Pretty academic treatment about how many people emigrated West. The text is about numbers and of emigrants in the 18th centruy, and what the newspapers and politicians were saying for and against emigrating.
November 9, 2009
Masterfully researched and heart breaking statistics on the Oregon Trail.
September 19, 2025
Possibly the best book ever written about the westward migration, this posthumously published doctoral dissertation is a gift to America.
July 26, 2020
I have been meaning to read this book for some time, judging it by its reputation. Now I can say the reputation is completely justified. It tells the full story of the pioneers who travelled westwards across America to reach California and the Oregon Territory in the 1840s and 1850s, many to settle and bring up their families, some to find their fortune in gold – or not – depending on their luck.
I was brought up in the 50s and early 60s with B movies and television westerns: Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, Wagon Train, and so many more. What a load of inaccuracy they were.
The late Mr Unruh describes the commercial and personal aspects of pioneer emigration. The outfitting firms in Missouri and Iowa, the passenger train organisers, the guidebook writers, the provision suppliers – so many people wanting to make a profit and the pioneers hadn't even started. Following that you had the ferry operators, the bridge and road toll collectors, the sutlers, blacksmiths, and livestock traders in the government forts or on the trails – again so many people wanting to make a profit. To counter that there were the relief expeditions made from Oregon and California to rescue starving and desperate pioneers on the final stage of their trek through the mountains who, for a variety of reasons – miscalculation, carelessness, bad luck – had come within a tantalising distance of their promised land and run out of food or water, or their livestock had died leaving them to travel on foot. Most of such expeditions were funded by individuals or communities as acts of charitableness.
The author emphasises that, apart from the Gold Rush years, the emigration was primarily a movement of families: men, women and children; not gunfighters, cattle rustlers and horse thieves – the West had a home-grown supply of those. Relations with the Indians tended to be peaceful, if distrustful. It was only later in the 1850s that more violent attacks occurred, many of them settlers against Indians rather than the other way round.
Mr Unruh mentions some points and events which rarely appear elsewhere. Many emigrants decorated their canvas wagon covers with paintings or slogans: perhaps nice depictions of animals, perhaps political opinions, perhaps – especially among the gold rushers – expressions that were a little more explicit. There was the story of Henderson Luelling, who travelled to Oregon with a cargo of young fruit trees, vines and shrubs packed into a wagon that needed three oxen to pull it, and made a fortune as a fruit farmer and entrepreneur. And there were the causes of death en route, one of which, quite prevalent, was firearm accidents. Most emigrants were not expert at handling guns and an effective method of practical suicide was taking a loaded rifle out of a wagon barrel-first.
This is a fascinating study of an event and a period in Western history, made both academic and readable.
I was brought up in the 50s and early 60s with B movies and television westerns: Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, Wagon Train, and so many more. What a load of inaccuracy they were.
The late Mr Unruh describes the commercial and personal aspects of pioneer emigration. The outfitting firms in Missouri and Iowa, the passenger train organisers, the guidebook writers, the provision suppliers – so many people wanting to make a profit and the pioneers hadn't even started. Following that you had the ferry operators, the bridge and road toll collectors, the sutlers, blacksmiths, and livestock traders in the government forts or on the trails – again so many people wanting to make a profit. To counter that there were the relief expeditions made from Oregon and California to rescue starving and desperate pioneers on the final stage of their trek through the mountains who, for a variety of reasons – miscalculation, carelessness, bad luck – had come within a tantalising distance of their promised land and run out of food or water, or their livestock had died leaving them to travel on foot. Most of such expeditions were funded by individuals or communities as acts of charitableness.
The author emphasises that, apart from the Gold Rush years, the emigration was primarily a movement of families: men, women and children; not gunfighters, cattle rustlers and horse thieves – the West had a home-grown supply of those. Relations with the Indians tended to be peaceful, if distrustful. It was only later in the 1850s that more violent attacks occurred, many of them settlers against Indians rather than the other way round.
Mr Unruh mentions some points and events which rarely appear elsewhere. Many emigrants decorated their canvas wagon covers with paintings or slogans: perhaps nice depictions of animals, perhaps political opinions, perhaps – especially among the gold rushers – expressions that were a little more explicit. There was the story of Henderson Luelling, who travelled to Oregon with a cargo of young fruit trees, vines and shrubs packed into a wagon that needed three oxen to pull it, and made a fortune as a fruit farmer and entrepreneur. And there were the causes of death en route, one of which, quite prevalent, was firearm accidents. Most emigrants were not expert at handling guns and an effective method of practical suicide was taking a loaded rifle out of a wagon barrel-first.
This is a fascinating study of an event and a period in Western history, made both academic and readable.
June 17, 2019
The Plains Across is a remarkable posthumous book, a nearly unrevised dissertation that is nevertheless a thoroughly readable synthesis of the overland migration to the American West, 1840-1860. It’s a pity that John Unruh (1937-1976) never had the chance to further rework this manuscript after so diligently honing his craft during the eight years of research and writing it took to complete his dissertation.
The least interesting chapters come first: long, pedestrian surveys of public opinion about the Trans-Mississippi West. More compelling is the chapter on emigrant-Indian interaction, which Unruh proves was considerably less violent and more mutually beneficial than the myth of unremitting conflict suggests. Unruh’s discussion of emigrant-Mormon relations is too apologetic for Mormon behavior, but the chapter nevertheless explains well why the overlanders and Saints often came into conflict.
To my mind, the best chapters are the final ones, chronicling the significant assistance that overlanders received from the West Coast. Not only did earlier emigrants extend aid for its public relations value in the struggle to increase local populations, there was also a remarkable amount of pure humanitarian assistance, sometimes granted at considerable personal sacrifice. The last chapter, “The Overlanders in Historical Perspective,” is a fine summary of the emigrant experience.
The Plains Across is now more than thirty-five years old, but it continues to retain its status as the standard history of the Trans-Mississippi migration. As one of Unruh’s friends wrote, “It is sorrowful beyond expression that this book must stand as a posthumous memorial to [the author], rather than as the beginning of an outstanding professional career.”
The least interesting chapters come first: long, pedestrian surveys of public opinion about the Trans-Mississippi West. More compelling is the chapter on emigrant-Indian interaction, which Unruh proves was considerably less violent and more mutually beneficial than the myth of unremitting conflict suggests. Unruh’s discussion of emigrant-Mormon relations is too apologetic for Mormon behavior, but the chapter nevertheless explains well why the overlanders and Saints often came into conflict.
To my mind, the best chapters are the final ones, chronicling the significant assistance that overlanders received from the West Coast. Not only did earlier emigrants extend aid for its public relations value in the struggle to increase local populations, there was also a remarkable amount of pure humanitarian assistance, sometimes granted at considerable personal sacrifice. The last chapter, “The Overlanders in Historical Perspective,” is a fine summary of the emigrant experience.
The Plains Across is now more than thirty-five years old, but it continues to retain its status as the standard history of the Trans-Mississippi migration. As one of Unruh’s friends wrote, “It is sorrowful beyond expression that this book must stand as a posthumous memorial to [the author], rather than as the beginning of an outstanding professional career.”
May 4, 2020
No doubt this is a masterpiece of historical writing. Unruh's wide-ranging synthesis of overland emigration to Oregon and California is a beast, but readable. As with any book, there are parts I wish there were more of and parts I wish there were less. The amount of time talking about costs of goods and how that changed over time was thoroughly mind-numbing for me, but might be quite interesting to others. But, the descriptions of interactions with Native Americans, other emigrants, the Mormons, etc, was fascinating. It also opened up a whole new history of emigration to Oregon/California that I never considered before--the water passage either down to Panama, across, and up, or around Cape Horn. There is doubtless another history of those emigrants elsewhere, but not in Unruh's book. He is focused on the overland emigrants, and thank goodness or this would have been a 600 page book! Overall, a good read for those who like reading history, and readable history at that.
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March 17, 2024I'll return to this in future.
January 28, 2012
This was the second in a series of antebellum western emigrant histories that I read (following Hard Road West, Meldhal). Unfortunately, it's the only such book Unruh will ever write (he's dead). It's a good overview of the different types of people and the reasons behind the different waves of emigration. It's arranged by topic rather than sequentially, which I found a little difficult at times. There are sections that are basically a literature review; it's more of a thesis than a reader's book. The good thing about the arrangement is it makes it easy to go back & use it as a reference if you want more info about a particular topic in western history.
March 8, 2025
An in depth, scholarly review of the two decades of overland immigration. Well written, but can get heavy with statistics. If you’re interested in this period of U.S. history, this is a must read. The bibliography alone was worth the $15 I paid for the book at a used bookstore in Detroit.
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August 31, 2008Author Barry Lopez recomended this book as part of the Rocky Mountain Land Library's "A Reading List For the President Elect: A Western Primer for the Next Administration."
September 4, 2012
Accurate , but academically written. In other words, kind of dry.
December 25, 2016
Fascinating read.
January 2, 2020
I read this as part of the KCLS 2019 10 to Try challenge: Read a book about history.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews