The Year of Decision 1846
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ISBN10: 0312267940
ISBN13: 9780312267940
Trade Paperback
576 Pages
$34.99
Year of Decision 1846 offers many fascinating stories of the U.S. explorers who began the western march from the Mississippi to the Pacific, from Canada to the annexation of Texas, California, and the southwest lands from Mexico. It is the penultimate book of a trilogy which includes Across the Wide Missouri (for which DeVoto won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes) and The Course of Empire.
This middle volume of DeVoto's landmark historical narrative covers the expanding Western frontier, the Mormons, the Donner party, Frémont's exploration, the Army of the West, and the character and design of Native American tribal life.
Reviews
Praise for The Year of Decision 1846
"In the first volume of the trilogy, Devoto made 1846 the 'year of the decision.' The reason was that it was in 1846 that America began a war with Mexico that would lead to the annexation of New Mexico, Arizona, and California; and that America settled a long-smoldering dispute with Great Britain and became sovereign in Oregon, thus beginning the process of making the Southwest and West Coast into a part of the American Republic. It was also a peak year in the emigration across the plains and mountains."—Stephen E. Ambrose, from the Introduction
"Bernard DeVoto has woven a pattern of history more meaningful than any of its strands . . . This rare combination of the scholar's accuracy, the novelist's creative vision, and the historian's insight has won him a distinguished place among American historians."—Garrett Mattingly, author of The Armada
