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| Volume 1, Issue 1
Further Reading on the West
Text Complexity Grade Level
9
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The Taking Of California
A low comedy for high stakes: More >>>By T. H. Watkins, February 1973, Volume 24, Issue 2
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Frémont Steals California
By Sally Denton, Winter 2011, Volume 60, Issue 4
A junior Army officer, acting on secret orders from the president, bluffed a far-stronger Mexican force into conceding North America's westernmost province to the United States More >>>
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Russians In California
- By Allan Temko, April 1960, Volume 11, Issue 3
James Polk appears doomed to remain one of our least-appreciated presidents, despite Robert W. Merry’s valiant attempt to drag him from the shadows in A Country of Vast Designs.
Tragic Story Of The San Patricio Battalion
Ne’er-do-wells and deserters, these soldiers lived hard, fought hard— and died when they saw a flag go up.
Compromise 3: Clay and The 1850 Debate
Robert V. Remini | Summer 2010
Fistfights broke out in Congress in 1850 over whether the territories just won in the Mexican War should be slave or free—and only a last-minute series of compromises prevented catastrophe.
On a raw evening in the winter of 1850, a weary-looking, feeble, and desperately ill old man arrived unannounced at the Washington, D.C. residence of Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. It was Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky seeking Webster’s help in his battle to save the Union.
James Callaghan | November 1995
Most of them were American soldiers who fought with skill, discipline, and high courage against a U.S. Army that numbered Ulysses Grant in its ranks. The year was 1847.
The court-martial of Capt.
“To A Distant And Perilous Service”
Richard Reinhardt | June/July 1979
Westward with the course of empire, Colonel Jonathan Drake Stevenson took his way in 1846. With him went the denizens of New York’s Tammany wards, oyster cellars, and gin mills—the future leaders of California.
A low comedy for high stakes:
Enrique Hank Lopez | April 1969
In the bright mestizo tapestry of Mexico’s 30 centuries of civilization, the Indian, the Spanish, and the modern threads interweave—and tangle.
About 100 years ago, a roaring hurricane swept along the Mexican border with such fury that it radically changed the course of the Rio Grande—and consequently altered the international boundary. When the storm finally subsided, the village of El Paso, Texas was about 630 acres larger, and the bawdy little pueblo of Juárez, Mexico was that many acres smaller.
Richard M. Ketchum | October 1963
John Charles Frémont never