The Year Of Decision 1846

This book tells many fascinating stories of the U.S. explorers who began the Western march from the Mississippi to the Pacific, from Canada to the annexation of Texas, California, and the Southwest lands from Mexico. It is the penultimate book of a trilogy which includes Across the Wide Missouri, for which DeVoto won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes in 1948, and The Course of Empire, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1953. DeVoto’s narrative covers the expanding Western frontier, the Mormons, the Donner party, Fremont’s exploration, the Army of the West, and takes readers into Native American tribal life.

This book tells the story of some people who went west in 1846. 1846 saw the outbreak of the war with Mexico, Fremont and the Bear Flag Revolt, a great Oregon and California emigration, the conquest of New Mexico, Doniphan's expedition, and the tragedy of the Donner party of emigrants--half adults, half childrens. These narratives are told as stories in themselves, as related parts of the great national spectacle, and as the culmination of the whole movement of American westward migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific.