In 'The Undiscovered Country,' Paul Andrew Hutton charts the westward movement of the American frontier * Oregon ArtsWatch

"Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody - the gang of American frontiersmen is all here in The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West. The valuable new volume is by historian Paul Andrew Hutton, an award-winning author, documentary writer, and a Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. Hutton's 565-page history, a New York Times bestseller published last year by Dutton, covers the American frontier from the mid-18th century to 1900."

"Hutton follows the original ideas of historian Frederick Jackson Turner. In 1893, Turner moved in a new direction among historians in arguing that the American frontier, not European sociocultural legacies, did the most to shape American history. The Turnerian or frontier thesis held sway well into the 20th century, but most western historians abandoned the frontier thesis well before 2000. Not Paul Hutton; he remains a follower of most Turnerian ideas in this provocative book."

"BOOKS OF THE WEST The opening - and longest section - features Daniel Boone and his importance in paving the way from the East Coast across the coastal mountains, and his helping to establish the Cumberland and Wilderness road pathways to Kentucky and the Ohio River country. In the second section, Hutton discloses his career-long fascination with Davy Crockett and his move from the eastern frontier to Texas and his tragic ending at the Alamo."

Coverage spans the American frontier from the mid-18th century to 1900, tracing expansion and key figures who opened and shaped western territories. Daniel Boone pioneered routes across coastal mountains and helped establish pathways to Kentucky and the Ohio River country. Davy Crockett moved from the eastern frontier to Texas and died at the Alamo. Kit Carson scouted and explored throughout the Far West. William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody served as a scout and military figure and later created traveling Wild West presentations that romanticized frontier life. The narrative aligns with Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis emphasizing frontier influence on American identity.

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