The Great Wagon Road: From Philadelphia to the South [American Trails Series]
by Parke Rouse, Jr
- Used
- as new
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- As new/near fine
- Seller
-
Gridley, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973. First Edition, First Printing. Cloth. As new/near fine. A fine first edition (as new) in a very near fine dust jacket, jacket showing a minute tear top edge on back. xii, 292 pages, 4 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm. Octavo. One of early America's main-traveled highways, the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road has long been in need of a historian to tell its fascinating story. In this eleventh volume of the American Trails Series, Parke Rouse, Jr., the author of several studies of colonial Virginia, chronicles the history of this great artery from its origins as the Appalachian Warriors' Path to its eclipse by railroads, turnpikes, and canals in the nineteenth century, and its revival (with a changed character) in the age of the automobile.Commencing in Philadelphia, the road ran west through Lancaster and York, thence down the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and on into the Carolina backcountry, terminating at Augusta, in South Carolinaa distance of approximately 800 miles. Rouse organizes his account of the road's history into four parts, treating, respectively, the Warriors' Path; the pre-Revolutionary history of the Wagon Road; The Wilderness Trail, which branched off at Big Lick (now Roanoke), Virginia, and continued west to Nashville; life along the road in the Revolutionary War era; and its subsequent history to the late nineteenth century.To tell the history of a highway is, of course, principally to record the scenes of human drama for which it served as a stage. Rouse is at his bestin performing this part of his task. He vividly evokes the saga of the immigrants, missionaries, frontiersmen, waggoners, drovers (North America's first cowboys), and others who streamed along the route. We are given glimpses of nascent Americans westering, fighting, and praying.The public houses and ordinaries at which the travelers refresh d themselves come in for entertaining treatment as well. At times, the focus shifts effectively from people en masse to particular individuals, among them Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, and the Rev. Francis Asbury, first Methodist bishop in the United States, depicted here in his earlier career as an itinerant evangelist.If the book has the best virtues of well-paced narrative history, and strong evocative capacity, it is not without its flaws. ...All things considered, however, Rouse has done an admirable job. The Great Wagon Road is enjoyable reading; and the ten pages of handsomelyreproduced illustrations embellish the text." -- Swarthmore College JEROME H. WOOD, JR.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Uncommon Works (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1308
- Title
- The Great Wagon Road: From Philadelphia to the South [American Trails Series]
- Author
- Parke Rouse, Jr
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- New As new
- Jacket Condition
- near fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, First Printing
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- McGraw-Hill
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1973
- Keywords
- Appalachia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virgiania, Geneaology
- Bookseller catalogs
- Americana;
Terms of Sale
Uncommon Works
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About the Seller
Uncommon Works
Biblio member since 2014
Gridley, California
About Uncommon Works
Not your ordinary book store! Uncommon Works specializes in rare, odd, unique, and handmade books, with a focus on the Maya, Latin America, Native America, and the Spanish Conquest. You'll find rare, first editions and first or early printings. You'll even find a few first printings of living authors for sale. We provide services and referrals for book mending, repair, restoration, and binding.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...