Running mad for Kentucky : frontier travel accounts /

Eslinger (DePaul Univ.) has creatively combined an excellent introduction, useful editorial settings for a well-chosen representation of documents, insightfully selected primary sources, and modern research to provide readers a magnificent collection of frontier travel accounts. She rightfully allows the language of the travelers to inform readers about the difficulties of "running mad for Kentucky." Nothing illustrates the vagaries of going west like the descriptions of those who made the journeys. This book, like Emily Foster's The Ohio Frontier (1996), reminds us of the challenges involved in western expansion and early state making. Eslinger deserves credit for providing scholars with modern, carefully noted versions of these travel accounts. Also worthy of commendation are the references to up-to-date scholarship upon which the study is grounded. In perusing these readings, one cannot help but marvel at the natural splendor of the presettlement frontier. It is no wonder that Native Americans fought so hard to keep it. An excellent map and a number of appropriate illustrations add to the publication's attractiveness. This volume should be in every library dealing with America's first west. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. J. H. O'Donnell III Marietta College