Publisher's Synopsis
This is a history of the Western states that comprise America, tracing back to the Spanish and the Age of Exploration. From the intro: "DURING the sad, tragic years of the Rebellion, a large two-volume work, by the authors of this, was published under the title of "Our Whole Country." It was modeled on the same general plan with the Historical Collections of Massachusetts and of Connecticut, by John W. Barber, and the Historical Collections of Virginia and of Ohio, by Henry Howe. That work was issued at great expense, consequent upon years of labor, extensive travel, and the drawing and engraving of many hundred original views of objects of interest in all parts of our land. This expense was full fifteen thousand dollars before the first sheet of paper was bought upon which it was printed, and was an undivided enterprise of our own. The changed condition of a part of our country, united to the double expense of book publishing, compels us to alter the plan, and to issue the original work in two independent, separate books, with such changes in the materials as are demanded by the lapse of time and events. By, this means a choice of either will be given to such limited finances as cannot grasp both. The one book will comprise "The Atlantic States, North, and South;" the other is the present volume, "The Whole West." The first-named will be preceded by an introduction giving the general history of the country, when will follow, in order, all the sea-board States, originally British colonies, and the old Spanish colony of Florida, the most ancient of them all, but of feeble nursing and of trivial growth. The book you hold comprises all of that immense territory comprehended under the term " The Great West." The six States of the South-west are herein grouped by themselves; and the articles upon them, and the views of places therein, are especially interesting, as showing their condition and appearance at the outbreak of the late terrible struggle. Prom chaos may new and more graceful forms arise, and that unhappy people, whose valor and endurance have been so extraordinary, be soon lifted into clearer skies and to more pleasing visions. For obvious reasons, the events of the late intestine war have no place here. Their introduction would swell the work to too extensive proportions. Besides, it is to be expected that every family will possess volumes solely devoted to that topic which has entered so largely and thrillingly into the general experience of us all."
