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How the West Was Won

by Louis L’Amour

First published 1963

Amazon
4.5(1,525)

Set in the nineteenth-century westward expansion of the United States, from overland migration and the Gold Rush through the Civil War and railroad age, How the West Was Won is a novel built around the pressures of its historical setting. They came by river and by wagon train, braving the endless distances of the Great Plains and the icy passes of the Sierra Nevada. They were men like Linus Rawlings, a restless survivor of Indian country who'd headed east to see the ocean but left his heart--and his home--in the West. They were women like Lilith Prescott, a smart, spirited beauty who fled her family and fell for a gambling man in the midst of a frontier gold boom. These pioneering men and women sowed the seeds of a nation with their courage--and with their blood.

The historical background is Oregon Trail Migration, California Gold Rush, American Civil War, First Transcontinental Railroad. L’Amour uses practical details of travel, work, weather, weapons, distance and local authority to make the setting more than a backdrop. The result combines fast-moving adventure with a strong sense of how isolation, weak institutions and rapid economic change could shape individual choices.

Historical Periods

American Civil War1861–1865 CE California Gold Rush1848–1855 CE First Transcontinental Railroad1863–1869 Oregon Trail Migration1840–1869 CE

Genres

Exploration & Survival Fiction Family Sagas Historical Sagas War Fiction Western & Frontier Fiction

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