Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West

Although President Thomas Jefferson did not believe that the Constitution gave him the authority to expand the territory of the United States through the purchase of land, he nonetheless accepted Napoleon’s offer to make the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million. Brands (history, Univ. of Texas at Austin; The First American) begins his history of the American West with that momentous decision. He then explores the settlement of the region through the experiences of numerous individuals, some famous but many unknown. Among the themes that emerge is that while the West promised opportunity, the extreme challenges faced by settlers denied many the future they envisioned. Another was that violence reigned, especially as it related to the determination of Native Americans to defend their homelands. That issue necessitated the might of the U.S. military, which is also part of another theme, namely that the settlement of the West would not have happened without federal intervention. This marks a very different picture from the traditional view that the West was the product of rugged individualism.