Combines an account of Robert Louis Stevenson's experiences as he traveled from New York to California by train in 1879 and a description of the building and operation of railroads in nineteenth-century America. An account of Robert Louis Stevenson's twelve day journey from New York to California in 1879, interwoven with a history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling of the West.

It was a small war as such things go, probably no more than 2,500 men were ever engaged in a single action, both sides taken together. It was a short war too, lasting only about seven months. And it was certainly fought in what was at the time one of the most obscure corners of the world. Yet for all that, the Texas War for Independence was a heroic struggle of legendary character. Historian Albert A. Nofi chronicles the epic struggle of the Texas...

Anthology of essays, laws, speeches and other writings illustrating the American way of life.

This book describes the journeys west made by many settlers in the mid-1800s - mostly overland, but also by sea - discussing their reasons for going, the difficulties they faced, and life on the way.

Discusses the history of the transcontinental railroad, including the construction of the Central Pacific, Union Pacific, and other related railroads which joined the east and west coasts.

The author describes the adventures and disasters in the lives of people who rushed to the gold mines of California in 1848 and explains how this event sparked the state's development.

From the moment that Europeans landed on America's shores, they engaged in bloody conflict with the natives they encountered. Tensions and hostilities bred in the colonial wars with the Spanish, English, French, and Dutch would lead inevitably to the later wars of the removal period, skirmishes on the western Plains, and, ultimately, the confrontation at Wounded Knee. Now, captured here in the words of those who lived it, is the epic, violent history...