Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West

From a New York Times bestselling author, a masterful history of the American West—from the California Gold Rush to the settling of Oklahoma and beyond. "Epic in its scale, fearless in its scope, this is a bravura performance from one of our master historians." —Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Blood and Thunder  In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame—and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another.  The West was where riches would reward the miner's persistence, the cattleman's courage, the railroad man's enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East. Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West. "[Brands] has a deft narrative touch and a talent for highlighting the human drama undergirding historical events … History as adventure story." ―Los Angeles Review of Books "Brands is a master storyteller … [Dreams of El Dorado] will enthrall aficionados of 19th-century American history." ―Library Journal