American myths about national character tend to overshadow the historical realities. Mr. Horsman's book is the first study to examine the origins of racialism in America and to show that the belief in white American superiority was firmly ensconced in the nation's ideology by 1850.
The author deftly chronicles the beginnings and growth of an ideology stressing race, basic stock, and attributes in the blood. He traces how this ideology shifted from the more benign views of the Founding Fathers, which embraced ideas of progress and the spread of republican institutions for all. He...
American myths about national character tend to overshadow the historical realities. Mr. Horsman's book is the first study to examine the origins o...
"Horsman has effectively analyzed American policy during a critical period. Throughout there are two themes: feuding between the national government and the states over who would formulate and execute Indian policy; and the contrast between the humanitarian instincts frequently moticating policy makers in the national capital and the injustice that the Indians experienced on the frontier....Much of his book deals with how the United States government tried to reconcile the 'Spirit of '76'with the land hunger of aggressive frontiersmen."-Journal of Southern History
"Horsman has effectively analyzed American policy during a critical period. Throughout there are two themes: feuding between the national government a...
In Frontier Doctor, Reginald Horsman provides the first modern, scholarly biography of a colorful backwoods doctor whose pioneering research on human digestion gained him international renown as a physiologist. Before William Beaumont's work, there was still considerable controversy as to the nature of human digestion; his research established beyond a doubt that digestion is a chemical process.
Beaumont received his medical training as an apprentice in a small town in Vermont and served as a surgeon's mate in the War of 1812. After the war, he practiced in Plattsburgh, New York,...
In Frontier Doctor, Reginald Horsman provides the first modern, scholarly biography of a colorful backwoods doctor whose pioneering research on hu...
Feast or Famine is the first comprehensive account of food and drink in the winning of the West, describing the sustenance of successive generations of western pioneers. Drawing on journals of settlers and travelers--as well as a lifetime of research on the American West--Reginald Horsman examines more than one hundred years of history, from the first advance of explorers into the Mississippi valley to the movement of ranchers and farmers onto the Great Plains, recording not only the components of their diets but food preparation techniques as well.
Most settlers were able to...
Feast or Famine is the first comprehensive account of food and drink in the winning of the West, describing the sustenance of successive gen...