Customer Reviews

The Tide of Empire: America's March to the Pacific

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This story of the Oregon Country has been told so many times, what could be added to enhance it? Try enthusiasm and style. This work is so well written as to be jaw dropping. Whether you are an accomplished historian or someone with a casual interest, this history of the Pacific Northwest will please.

While there is nothing new here Golay covers the waterfront. You meet the usual cast of characters, the Chinook Indians, John Jacob Astor, the Mountain Men, John McLoughlin, Senator Thomas Hart Benson, the Whitmans, Charles Wilkes, Jedediah Smith, Charles Fremont, etc., etc. Michael Golay omits no one. He covers the builders and the destroyers from the traders, trappers, explorers, and missionaries who withstood seemingly insurmountable odds to seize the Pacific Northwest for the United States to the economic interests such as the American Fur Company and the Northwest Company that provided employment and competing political agendas.

A compellingly told, fast paced account of exploration and adventure, Golay covers a half century of diplomatic rivalry, a flood of transcontinental Euro American settlement and the breathtaking impudence of their claims.