West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 Paperback – July 6, 2015

When I was in school, 1700's history was all about the thirteen colonies and their eventual independence. The rest of the continent was ignored, and any activities there assumed to be of no consequence.Saunt shows that the colonies were a minor story in a continent of amazing long-distance trade and interaction between the native peoples. Along with those activities, sophisticated on their own, was the movement into the country of the Russians, Spanish, and French, all from different directions, to compete with the English, and all seeking to claim territory of completely unknown size and geography. This book is an eye-opener as to how the landscape was discovered, partitioned, and the interactions with the native peoples that have colored our opinions as a nation until today.Read this book and change your knowledge of the early history of the United States.

I liked this so much I bought a copy as a gift. It's a very interesting history of what was going on in 5 different areas of what is now the US during the time of the Revolutionary War. If it had more maps of the areas that are being described, I would have given it 5 stars.

I very much enjoyed this book. Bought it for a history class, and found it an extremely interesting read, and very much true to its title. Chock - full of fresh, insightful research not taught in the conventional classroom, I cannot but give this book five stars - highly recommended to the historian who wants a fresh new look at a dynamic and defining period in our nation's history. An easy five stars from me...P. S. I noticed an earlier review mentioning that half the book is footnotes and that the book is horribly written. The latter leaves no room for comment since that is very much based on opinion, but as far as the former goes, extensive footnotes are common in scholarly accounts and are actually indicative of solid research and necessary for history majors who have to write something like a comparative book reviews etc.

I expected more from this book than I got. It is a series of brief histories of events in the west that occurred in and around 1776. The Russians and the Aleutian island, San Diego and the various missions along the California coast, the migration of the Lakota Sioux into the Black Hills, Cumberland house and the Hudson's Bay company, the Osage Indian nation, and the Creek nation in it's attempts to develop a trade relationship with Cuba. Instead of treating in depth, any one of these interesting subjects the author skips from one place to the next leaving the reader with a superficial knowledge of the time and place. All of these events have been covered by more complete histories. I have read widely on the history of the west and unfortunately all I learned that was new were events focused on individuals with no real development of their lives. The book is fairly written, but was not to my taste.

A fascinating read! Having purchased this book for a Seminar on Early America, this book shows the events that are transpiring outside of the North East. We see the Lakota and their claim to the Black Hills, of San Diego and San Francisco. It sheds light on areas that are often ignored in the context of 1776, as they were technically outside of America. It is nonetheless an interesting read and fulls one in on many aspects of 1776 that you don't get in ordinary History Classes.

There are different lenses for studying history. For early North American history (at least for Americans) the focus is overwhelmingly on the eastern seaboard, its colonies, and the road to revolution. This book helps fill in other pieces of the puzzle that were going on at about the same time as the revolution.There's a discussion of early land speculation on and beyond the Appalachian Mountains (which was a factor in the war itself and Washington's personal life). There's talk of multiple Indian tribes and how their political and economic future was reshaped by the 1763 treaty of the Seven Years' War, which put some of them under greater or lesser control of particular monarchs. I particularly liked the maps showing how certain tribes suddenly gained or lost trading partners, which was a sort of overlay on more traditional maps of which king claimed which land. There's talk of the Spanish expansion in California as they began to colonize modern San Francisco, and the dangerous expeditions and raids they were involved in. Then there's discussion of how the Russians were heavily involved in exploring Alaska to hunt for furs, and how they repeatedly clashed with the local tribes in an echo of what was happening on the east coast. Amusingly there's a section on Spanish paranoia about the Russian threat to their north. "Sire, see this map?! The Russians are practically here already!"So, this book helps provide a perspective that I knew little about despite studying early American history. I had also recently read a history of Astoria, an ill-fated attempt to colonize what's now Oregon, so this book ties in well with that.

This sentence is added to make my comment longer, because I am too busy to write more just to please Amazon. Products came as promised and very fast. I am very satisfied. Now this sentence repeated to make my comment even longer, because I am too busy to write more just to please Amazon. Products came as promised and very fast. I am very satisfied.

This book came as a recommendation from the DAR. It had some interesting facts, but just didn't have enough to keep you reading. Save your money!