Customer Reviews

The Year of Decision: 1846 (American Heritage Library)

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Bernard De Voto is one of our most eminent American historians and 1846 is considered to be one of his best works. He does what few historians are able to do and that is to capture the pulse of American expansionist desire. He does so by using a variety of novelistic devices to give added emotional weight to the events that transpired in this very decisive year in American history. Underscoring the narrative is De Voto's razor-sharp wit, which deflates most of the grand ambitions of the leading figures in 1846.

De Voto develops several paralleling stories: that of the great Mormon migration, the ill-fated Donner Party, Fremont's attempt to establish the Bear Flag Republic in California, the attempts to secure Texas and the New Mexico and Oregon territories, all during a time in which President Polk fought for America's Manifest Destiny against Britain and Mexico. De Voto develops a great number of characters, some well known, some lesser known, and weaves them together in an American quilt. He sets up the events that would lead to the Mexican War and briefly describes some of the battles, taking aim mostly at the ineptitude of both armies and the political posturing of the various Whig generals.

It is an unbridled view of historical events. At times, De Voto can be unmerciful in his attacks on the heroic postures that some of these leading figures took, and at other times quite sympathetic as he tries to make sense of the conflicting reports that were written.

He uses terms that may be offensive to some readers but these were the terms often employed by the figures of this era. He provides a wealth of information from journals and diaries that were kept, often giving his account a "first-hand" quality. De Voto sustains his incredible driving force throughout this narrative, capping it off with a pithy epilogue regarding the events that would grow out of the decisions made in 1846.

This is the greatest book ever written about the American West. The Year of Decision 1846 is the most defining portrayal of America's character. It is my favorite history book. I read this book every five years to gain a better perspective about this brilliant masterpiece.

To paraphrase Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (all quotations are his) in a foreword edition (1984), no other historical work about the westward movement comes closer in describing "the colors, sounds, smells of the Great Plains and of the Rockies beyond," and of Manifest Destiny than this literary achievement. Devoto's wry wit and sagebrush humor pushes the reader even deeper into his story.

This great novel closely portrays the ambition, the arrogance, the excitement, and the alienation of not only the greatest emerging country the world has even known, but reveals clear reflections of Devoto's persona himself. His conscience "continues to move us with tales splendidly and exactly told of our ancestors as they struggled in their valor and frailty against nature, the wilderness, and their own weaker selves."

"Devoto saw America as 'a system of social energies' at once pulled asunder by the 'centrifugal expansion of the frontier and the equal explosiveness of the developing industry' between the period of 1840's through the end of the Civil War, 'a terrible war that would redefine the American Republic.'"

Devoto wrote exuberantly about the conquest of Mexico, but he was adroit about quoting Emerson: "The United States will conquer Mexico but it will be as the man swallows the arsenic which brings him down in turn. Mexico will poison us."

An excellent summation of Devoto's life is provided by Ann W. Engar who reasons that Devoto did not receive the critical attention he deserves, perhaps because he was so multitalented and often polemical. "Devoto was the unsparing critic when Americans failed to live up to the best standards of the Republic." Many current historians note the remarkable parallels today in his writings. 'Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerves give to wisdom.' Born in Utah in 1897 and one of Harvard's greatest, Devoto died in 1955 at the age of 58. "He knew the bitterness and triumph of life."

I always get a refreshing perspective in my life about the stress of current events when compared to the readiness and eagerness of earlier legends, when they faced extreme dangers. Engar reasonably concludes that Devoto's importance lies in his attempts in both fiction and historical writing to intepret the importance of the West in the development of American culture.

Take your time reading this book and get rid of all distractions.

At first glance, you might not think a chronicle of the year 1846 in American history would be that exciting. However, this book was the most pleasant surprise I have ever read, and I would recommend it to anyone, whether or not they normally read history books or not. Scrape up the $33 to buy a copy from Amazon, or find it on inter-library loan. You won't be disappointed.

First, 1846 turns out to be an incredibly interesting year in American history. The concept of "manifest destiny" was at its strongest, and the question of what the United States meant as a nation was leading the country towards civil war.

De Voto traces several different aspects of the Westward Expansion that occurred that year. First, and maybe most importantly, the United States government was in a three-way contest with Mexico and Britain over what is now the West Coast, and we fought the Mexican War that year, half by design and half through a series of miscommunications. Second, Brigham Young led the Mormons to Utah in 1846. Third, the general westward movement of the settlers reached a new peak, including, notably, the Donner party.

De Voto, who won the Pulitzer prize for the next installment in his trilogy about the American West, is an incredibly engaging writer. He combines an understanding of the political forces that were leading the nation towards civil war with a lyrical sensitivity to the appeal of the West and Southwest and a compelling empathy with the many characters who made up the old West.

De Voto shifts easily from the political, such as the machinations of the three nations prominently involved, to the personal, including characters ranging from crusty mountain men to General Santa Ana, from George Donner to Brigham Young.

It was refreshing to read a politically incorrect US history centered on the year 1846. DeVoto wrote the book in 1943 and takes shots at Indians, Mexicans, Mormons, Eastern Intellectuals, and Texans in general and Fremont, Polk, Stockton, Zachary Taylor, and others in particular. I had the strong feeling that DeVoto was telling it as he saw it and many of his observations were humorous, acerbic, and accurate about the myths and mythmakers of circa 1846. I enjoyed this book, but occasionally was lost in DeVoto's stream of thought.

Bernard DeVoto ranks among the most prominent historians of the last century. His writing reflects an early, somewhat oratorical style that was common in the middle 1900s. Don't be put off by a writing style that verges on the florid. This is a beatifully written account of one year (1846) in America's history. DeVoto describes aspects of American culture, economics, politics and philosophy in a manner that makes each topic a fascinating one. He's not afraid to prick with a writer's pin the nitwits and boobs of our history and he can be absolutely hilarious when he does. In his conclusion he draws together all these disparate elements to demonstrate that 1846 truly was a "year of decision" in our nation and that it contained ingredients fundamental to our character and development.
If you read only one history of the United States in the 19th century, this should be your choice.

In 1846-7, the United States finished much of its geographical expansion. The dispute with Great Britain was ended covering the northwestern parts of the contiguous continental United States, and war with Mexico brought California and the southwest under U.S. sovereignty.

This book was written during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and is of interest, as well, for the backdrop of events against which it was written. A new preface by DeVoto's son and a new introduction by Stephen Ambrose nicely explain this point. A helpful timeline and many wonderful maps will also help increase your understanding.

Bernard DeVoto is our greatest historian of the western mirgration that helped build the modern United States. Before this book was written, there was no comprehensive work on this subject. Born in Ogden, Utah, he brings the perspective of a westerner to his writing, and scrupulously builds on many eye witness accounts to give us an in-person sense of this part of nation building. The western accounts are nicely put into the context of the gradual slide toward Civil War and the practical politics of the nation as a whole.

DeVoto is an entertaining writer who employs many of the techniques of novels and movie scripts to keep the action moving for us. He uses a comet splitting into two, for example, as an omen of the political cleavage that slavery is bringing. He also has strong opinions about the people involved and shares those opinions candidly. So this is very much of a personal view of history, although done by an eminent historian.

The book has many continuing story lines such as those about Fremont, the Mormon migration, the Donner party, and interactions with Native Americans (as seen through the eyes of the western migrants) that provide a lot of appeal for any reader of the book.

Although it was written first, this is the final book in a trilogy that DeVoto wrote. If you like this book, you should go back and read the other two books as well.

Truman Talley deserves a vote of thanks for bringing this important work back into print, and improving it!

After you have finished reading and enjoying this great book, I suggest that you consider where an improved understanding of American history could add to your life. A good starting point could be understanding more about the history of the place where you live. Then you could expand that to understanding more about places you plan to visit.

Enjoy your new learning and treks!

All the superlatives about this work, by other reviewers, are all merited. I would add, Bernard de Voto's prose was brilliant, and not always complementary to his American characters. Note this, which still rings true:
"... nor the creation in newsprint of a great public hero, is an invention of our age, which has not seen any betterment of the technique that erected [John C.] Fremont into a martyr ... That creation was almost enough to wreck the republic. It was enough to convince innumerable people born since the advertising stopped and its proprietors died ... that incompetence is courage, that self-seeking mutiny is statesmanship, that youth and purity of intention - if purity exists in the main chance - qualify a stupid man to lead armies and govern a nation, that martyrdom in headlines erases blunders and nullifies treason, that greatness is a loud noise."

Or this elegy:
"He was a good boy. You remembered how he had laughed and chattered. You remembered being harsh to him, in the unforgivable stupidity of parenthood. One day he was playing with a tin sword or, with a wooden gun, shooting imaginary Indians round a corner of the barn. A day or two later his voice was not treble any more and it was not a wooden gun that was on his shoulder when the fifes shrilled and he marched off behind the silk banner which the ladies of the church had made. You saw his face when he waved to you at the curve in the road and you wouldn't see it again. He had died of fever at Matamoros or of thirst on the way to Monclova, or a Mexican lance had done for him at Buena Vista or he had got halfway up the slope at Chapultepec. No children would spring from his loins as he had sprung from yours. So in Georgia you watched the upland where he had hunted squirrels turn brown with autumn, or in Ohio you saw the cows come in at milking time in still evening with someone else whistling to his dog. For what? ...

"Georgia or Ohio, as day was added to day, you were tugged at by forces subtler, more complex, more powerful, and more lasting than personal grief. A steelyard's arm had been lengthened and the counterpoise had moved out along it ..."

Now this was a writer.

DeVoto said "this book tells the story of some people who went west in 1846." He weaves together the story of those people: the Mormons, the Donner party, Fremont and Kit Carson in California, historian Francis Parkman, "Old Rough and Ready" Zack Taylor, and others.

The theme of the book is in the invocation, a quote from Henry Thoreau. "I must walk toward Oregon, and not towards Europe." America in 1846 became a continental and not just an Atlantic power. U.S. President James Polk crafted a deal with England for Oregon and Washington and launched a war with Mexico for California and the Southwest.

The largest part of the book deals with the war with Mexico -- but the best book on this subject is "So Far From God" by John S.D. Eisenhower. Rather than a historian of war, DeVoto is a sort of Homer of the West, extolling the feats of his company of heros. He's opinionated, arrogant, sometimes obnoxious, sometimes too clever to be tolerated, but he's turned out an epic of American empire here. It's not a balanced book. DeVoto doesn't waste many kind words on Mexicans, Indians, or Eastern intellectuals. The good guys are the mountain men, the uncouth, unlettered men who led the American charge across the great plains into the western mountains. Example: while Thoreau was extolling the virtues of self reliance on Walden Pond, about a mile from Concord, Massachusetts, Kit Carson rode a horse from California to Washington, D.C. -- and then turned around and rode back again. The mountain men are formidable.

This is not an easy book to read as DeVoto makes demands on the reader to remember a great number of characters participating in the complex threads of multiple movements. But its possibly the best book I've ever read about Americans going west.

DeVoto is often entertaining, frequently insulting, but always informative as he takes the reader through one of the most transformational moments in US history.

From President Polk to Pathfinder Fremont to Colonizer Young, DeVoto delights in describing the motivations and context behind the actions that reshaped the United States into a nation with a continental reach. The war with Mexico, the diplomatic wrangling with Britain over Oregon, and the comic-opera "revolution" in California are all described in the context of a single year that defined the shape of the 48 contiguous United States.

This is not an easy book to read; the author demands the attention of the reader as the scene of the action shifts from Washington DC to the Rio Grande to Truckee Lake in a narrative that becomes surprisingly integrated. The journey is well worth the trouble. This is far and away the best history book I have read on this period in history.

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 and would easily win it again today. There is a reason writers and historians have deified Bernard DeVoto's works and this, the first of his trilogy on the early American West, is the reason why: The man can write.

Focusing on the 2 years, 1846 -1847, DeVoto describes the turning point in American history as it was never explained in school. This work is at once poignant, sweeping, hilarious and introspective. If you already know a fair amount about this period, or if this is an introduction to that time, The Year of Decision will not fail you. The Westward movement of the United States, the War with Mexico, the movement of the Mormons to Utah, the Mountain Men, fur trade, election of President Polk, Santa Fe Trail, the Wilmot Proviso and the acquisition of Oregon, California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico are only a few of the topics that are explained in detail and with such completeness as to flabbergast.

It takes about 200 pages for the reader to become familiar with, comfortable with, what at first might be seen a rambling, somewhat esoteric writing style, but hang in there. This is quite a remarkable work, conversationally written and eloquently crafted, which touches more historically significant events in more detail than you can ever find anywhere else. This really is DeVoto at his reputation's well deserved best.