Prairie fever : British aristocrats in the American West, 1830-1890

Description

The extraordinary story of the British aristocracy's encounter with American frontier life in the nineteenth century. From the 1830s onward, a succession of well-born Britons headed west to the great American wilderness to find adventure and fulfillment. They brought their dogs, sporting guns, valets, and all the attitudes and prejudices of their class. Prairie Fever explores why the West had such a strong romantic appeal for them at a time when their inherited wealth and passion for sport had no American equivalent. In fascinating and often comic detail, the author shows how the British behaved―and what the fur traders, hunting guides, and ordinary Americans made of them―as they crossed the country to see the Indians, hunt buffalo, and eventually build cattle empires and buy up vast tracts of the West. But as British blue bloods became American landowners, they found themselves attacked and reviled as “land vultures” and accused of attempting a new colonization. In a final denouement, Congress moved against the foreigners and passed a law to stop them from buying land. 8 pages of illustrations Content: Prologue: 1887 : Frontier Days -- pt. 1. Freedom for the Spirit -- Encircling Vastness -- Beyond the Mississippi -- Red Men and Blue Bloods -- Buffalo Dreams -- "Who would not go a'pleasuring!" -- pt. 2. Staking a Claim -- Private Paradise -- A Place for the Boys -- "Hail Britannia!" -- Cattle Lords -- "Land Grabbers" -- Epilogue: 1887.