Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


River Towns in the Great West

River Towns in the Great West

River Towns in the Great West

The Structure of Provincial Urbanization in the American Midwest, 1820–1870
Timothy R. Mahoney
August 1990
Available
Hardback
9780521361309

    This book analyzes, with unprecedented breadth and coverage, the development, maturation, growth, and sudden decline of a distinctive, regional urban economic system that developed along the upper Mississippi River north of St. Louis during the middle third of the nineteenth century. Between 1820 and the Civil War the upper Mississippi River valley was at the center of national and international attention. At the edge of the northern frontier, this area, known as 'The Great West,' was the destination of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the East and from northern Europe. To many, its rich lands, temperate climate, and vast rivers offered an opportunity to establish a better life, as well as a chance to enter, if desired, the mainstream of American life. Drawing from a variety of methods used in historical geography, economic history, systems analysis, and social and urban history, Timothy Mahoney analyzes how early settlement patterns were affected by experience, climate, and geography and how they, in turn, shaped the initial patterns of economic, urban, and transportation development.

    Reviews & endorsements

    "River Towns in the Great West is a most useful book, one that will have more appeal to historians and economic historians than to the more analytical economists and geographers." Journal of Regional Science

    "Timothy R. Mahoney makes a significant contribution...with his interesting and assiduously researched study of town development in the upper Mississippi Valley. By focusing on a regional system, Mahoney extends his analysis beyond the limitations he associates with local history and with urban biography. The result is a sophisticated interpretation of how regional forces shaped the development of river towns....An innovative, perceptive, and persuasive analysis of the rise and fall of river towns in the West." The Journal of American History

    See more reviews

    Product details

    August 1990
    Hardback
    9780521361309
    332 pages
    238 × 158 × 24 mm
    0.64kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • List of figures and tables
    • Acknowledgments
    • Part I. Human Geography and the Structure of Regional Life:
    • 1. Introduction and 'topographical description'
    • 2. The land takes shape: the process of settlement
    • 3. Encountering the rivers
    • Part II. The Human System:
    • 4. Towns, roads, steamboat routes, and the development of a regional system
    • 5. The system takes shape: an economic geography
    • 6. The structure of the regional economy
    • Part III. The Regional Urban System:
    • 7. The currents of trade and regional urbanization
    • 8. Town and system: local history in a regional context
    • Epilogue
    • Appendixes
    • Index.
      Author
    • Timothy R. Mahoney