Book description
In all the sagas of human migration, none can top the drama of the
journey by mid-Western farmers to Oregon and California in the years
1840-49. Sandwiched between the era of the fur trappers and the
post-1849 gold fever, this account of the pioneering years in the
overland trails highlights and explains a unique experience both in
American and world history.
Seeking the promised land, these travellers trekked two thousand
miles by covered wagon from Missouri to their destination on the
Pacific. Using mountain men as guides, they went into the unknown,
braving dangers from hunger, thirst, disease, drowning and Indians.
The early overlanders got through only after Herculean efforts, but
later in the decade complacency set in, and the result was disaster,
especially in the case of the Donner party, marooned in the snows and
reduced to cannibalism.
Frank McLynn is a highly regarded historian, who specializes in
biographies and military history. He has written over 20 books,
including critically acclaimed biographies of Napoleon and Richard the
Lionheart. Other books include
1066
,
Stanley, 1759,
and
Marcus Aurelius.
He is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, and London University, where
he obtained his doctorate.
