The American Frontier: Bernard DeVoto's 'Across the Wide Missouri'

Cultural, diplomatic, economic, military, political, and social factors, or a combination of these features, frequently drive history. Oklahoma Humanities Pulitzer Prize Centennial Series on The American Frontier reflects the influence of individuals on the historical process during the development of the American West.

On September 6, John Morris, Ph.D. wil present on Bernard DeVoto's Across the Wide Missouri.

In 1948, Bernard DeVoto received the Pulitzer Prize for history for this book. Born in Utah and trained as a journalist, DeVoto wrote many books about the American West, each of them designed for the educated middle class, not professional historians. This book provides a comprehensive history of the Rocky Mountain fur trade between 1832-1839. Events take place during the most important period of the mountain man and fur trader. He includes examinations of the fur companies and their activities, fur trappers and their life style, fur traders and their method of doing business, as well as American Indian culture and their interaction with Anglo-Americans. He inserts the impact of geography, weather, and politics into the era. Aside from trappers and traders, DeVoto offers portraits of the different people who encountered the fur trade, including American Indian men and women, explorers, adventurers, European nobility, and the curious. Face-to-face relationships and confrontations in the wilderness characterized events of the Rocky Mountain fur trade.

More in this series:

Sept. 15, 5:30 p.m.

The Middle Ground by Richard White

Presenter: David Fennema, Ph.D

Oct. 4, 5:30 p.m.

The Way West by A. B. Guthrie

Presenter: Bruce Treadaway

Nov. 1, 5:30 p.m.

Son of the Wilderness by Linnie Marsh Wolfe

Presenter: Margery Kingsley, Ph.D.

Dec. 6, 5:30 p.m.

The Son by Philipp Meyer

Presenter: Rebecca Jacobs-Pollez, Ph.D.