Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion

From Thomas Jefferson's birth in 1743 to the California Gold Rush in 1849, America's westward expansion comes to life in the hands of a writer fascinated by the way individual lives link up, illuminate one another, and collectively impact history.

Jefferson, a naturalist and visionary, dreamed that the United States would stretch across the North American continent, from ocean to ocean. The account of how that dream became reality unfolds in the stories of Jefferson and nine other Americans whose adventurous spirits and lust for land pushed the westward boundaries: Andrew Jackson, John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, David Crockett, Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Kit Carson, Nicholas Trist, and John Quincy Adams.

Their stories—and those of the nameless thousands who risked their lives to settle on the frontier, displacing thousands of Native Americans—form an extraordinary chapter in American history that led directly to the cataclysm of the Civil War. Filled with illustrations, portraits, maps, battle plans, notes, and timelines, Lions of the West is a richly authoritative biography of America—its ideals, its promise, its romance, and its destiny.

"Fourscore years come alive through biographical vignettes that pull no punches . . . Engrossing as well as judicious history, narrated by a writer who knows the terrain firsthand." —Michael Kammen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

"Highly entertaining . . . A highly readable, often enjoyable, perspective on some of the biggest American luminaries participating, either actively or philosophically, in the settlement of the American West." — The Roanoke Times