Frontier Indiana

History of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier

by Andrew R.L. Cayton

Cayton's lively new history of the frontier period in Indiana puts the focus on people, on how they lived, how they viewed their world, and what motivated them. He focuses his account on representative individuals such as Jean-Baptiste Bissot, George Croghan (the ultimate frontier entrepreneur), Little Turtle, Anna Tuthill Symmes Harrison and William Henry Harrison, and Tenskwatawa the Shawnee Prophet. Retelling the story of Indiana's settlement in a human and compelling narrative, Cayton makes the experience of exploration and settlement real and exciting for all readers.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

A specialist in the history of early America and the Atlantic World, Andrew Robert Lee Cayton was Distinguished Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A native of Cincinnati, he received a B.A. with high honors from the University of Virginia and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Brown University. He was previously a Visiting Professor of History at The Ohio State University as well as the John Adams (Fulbright) Professor of American Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, The Washington Post Sunday Book World, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Reviews in American History, The Journal of American History, The William and Mary Quarterly, The Journal of the Early Republic and The Great Plains Quarterly.

Reviews

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting take, in which it went through the history chunk by chunk by focusing on historical figures in each. It was an interesting overview, though not heavily useful for my purposes.

[Bookwoman67 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks boring, but very well done. This explains a lot.

[Maria Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't really like history, but I love historical novels. This book reads like a historical novel. It is extremely entertaining while telling the factual stories of the people and times of frontier Indiana.