River Towns in the Great West by Timothy R. Mahoney - 9780521361309

River Towns in the Great WestThe Structure of Provincial Urbanization in the American Midwest, 18201870\nAuthor(s): Timothy R. Mahoney\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521361309, 978-0521361309\nSynopsis\nThis 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 wel.