The Year of Decision: 1846 (American Heritage Library) | Bernard Augustine De Voto

The Year of Decision: 1846 (American Heritage Library) | Bernard Augustine De Voto | This Work Is Timeless

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The Year of Decisi...

	The Year of Decision: 1846 (American Heritage Library) Bernard Augustine De Voto Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989 - 538 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Year of Decision is the first volume in Bernard DeVoto's monumental trilogy that brilliantly, boldly, and evocatively tells the story of the antebellum American West.

An Integrated History of the American West

DeVoto is often entertaining, frequently insulting, but always informative as he takes the reader through one of the most transformational moments in US history.

From President Polk to Pathfinder Fremont to Colonizer Young, DeVoto delights in describing the motivations and context behind the actions that reshaped the United States into a nation with a continental reach. The war with Mexico, the diplomatic wrangling with Britain over Oregon, and the comic-opera "revolution" in California are all described in the context of a single year that defined the shape of the 48 contiguous United States.

This is not an easy book to read; the author demands the attention of the reader as the scene of the action shifts from Washington DC to the Rio Grande to Truckee Lake in a narrative that becomes surprisingly integrated. The journey is well worth the trouble. This is far and away the best history book I have read on this period in history.

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This Work Is Timeless

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 and would easily win it again today. There is a reason writers and historians have deified Bernard DeVoto's works and this, the first of his trilogy on the early American West, is the reason why: The man can write.

Focusing on the 2 years, 1846 -1847, DeVoto describes the turning point in American history as it was never explained in school. This work is at once poignant, sweeping, hilarious and introspective. If you already know a fair amount about this period, or if this is an introduction to that time, The Year of Decision will not fail you. The Westward movement of the United States, the War with Mexico, the movement of the Mormons to Utah, the Mountain Men, fur trade, election of President Polk, Santa Fe Trail, the Wilmot Proviso and the acquisition of Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico are only a few of the topics that are explained in such detail and with such completeness as to flabbergast.

It takes about 200 pages for the reader to become familiar with, comfortable with, what at first might be seen and a rambling, somewhat esoteric writing style, but hang in there. This is quite a remarkable work, conversationally written and eloquently crafted, which touches more historically significant events in detail than you can ever find anywhere else. This really is DeVoto at his reputation's well deserved best.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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