Frontier Illinois

Preface; Acknowledgments; A Note on Quotations, Citations, and Sources; Prologue; Part I. Vast Lands and Contending Peoples; Chapter 1. The Shaping of Settlement; Chapter 2. Commingling Cultures; Chapter 3. The South and War for Empire; Chapter 4. Light British Rule; Part II. American Presence; Chapter 5. A Tenuous Conquest; Chapter 6. Firm Foundations; Chapter 7. Rumblings Across the Land; Part III. Statehood and Troubles; Chapter 8. Shaping a State; Chapter 9. Migration, Trials, and Tragedy; Part IV. The Formative 1830s; Chapter 10. Excitement in the Land; Chapter 11. Transportation, Towns, and Institutions; Chapter 12. Social Clashes and Economic Collapse; Part V. Cooperation and Conflict; Chapter 13. Race, Ethnicity, and Class; Chapter 14. Conflicts and Community; Part VI. Frontier Illinois Fades; Chapter 16. Ties that Bind; Chapter 17. Changing Ecology, Evolving Society; Notes; Works Cited; Index

James E. Davis is William and Charlotte Gardner Professor of History and Professor of Geography at Illinois College. He is the author of FRONTIER AMERICA, 1800-1840: A COMPARATIVE DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF THE SETTLEMENT PROCESS (1977), DREAMS TO DUST (1989), and a number of articles, monographs, edited works, and reviews. Professor Davis is recipient of the Harry J. Dunbaugh Distinguished Professor Award for outstanding teaching (1981 and 1993) and was an NEH Fellow in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he studied Russian architecture and art. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois State Historical Society and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the JOURNAL OF ILLINOIS HISTORY.

"A comprehensive, readable history of this distinctive prairie state before the Civil War...This deft synthesis of existing knowledge is likely to become the standard modern history of Illinois."--Kirkus Reviews "Davis provides an incisive portrait of prairie society... A fresh and sophisticated survey of early Illinois."--Choice "Extensively researched, and with excellent endnotes, Frontier Illinois is an important study. A lively account of how the frontier gave shape to the later state, it questions traditional stereotypes of the West and offers a new outlook as to the real nature of the Illinois frontier." --Journal of the Early Republic