Jimmy L. Bryan Jr is associate professor of history at Lamar University. He is the editor of The Martial Imagination: Cultural Aspects of American Warfare and the author of More Zeal Than Discretion: The Westward Adventures of Walter P. Lane.

American Elsewhere guides us through the tortuous and often baleful mental landscapes of American adventurers in the time of Jackson. In chasing the chimera of genuine experience, Bryan’s subjects create both a brotherhood of sentiment and geography of racial difference. Bryan’s grasp of emotional topographies is masterful. Saddle up and follow his lead."" - Daniel Herman, author of Hell on the Range: A Story of Honor, Conscience, and the American West""This book is a compelling investigation of how stories of Western adventurers (explorers, patriot warriors, and men of enterprise) from the end of the War of 1812 to the end of the U.S.-Mexican War romantically redefined the staid conventions of American manhood and thereby promoted a national ethos of manifest destiny. A unique, pivotal study in the cultural history of American exceptionalism and expansionism, it is well researched and plentifully documented, argued with judicious balance and critical discernment, and quite readable."" - Michael L. Johnson, author of Hunger for the Wild: America’s Obsession with the Untamed West

Jimmy L. Bryan Jr is associate professor of history at Lamar University. He is the editor of The Martial Imagination: Cultural Aspects of American Warfare and the author of More Zeal Than Discretion: The Westward Adventures of Walter P. Lane.

American Elsewhere guides us through the tortuous and often baleful mental landscapes of American adventurers in the time of Jackson. In chasing the chimera of genuine experience, Bryan’s subjects create both a brotherhood of sentiment and geography of racial difference. Bryan’s grasp of emotional topographies is masterful. Saddle up and follow his lead."" - Daniel Herman, author of Hell on the Range: A Story of Honor, Conscience, and the American West""This book is a compelling investigation of how stories of Western adventurers (explorers, patriot warriors, and men of enterprise) from the end of the War of 1812 to the end of the U.S.-Mexican War romantically redefined the staid conventions of American manhood and thereby promoted a national ethos of manifest destiny. A unique, pivotal study in the cultural history of American exceptionalism and expansionism, it is well researched and plentifully documented, argued with judicious balance and critical discernment, and quite readable."" - Michael L. Johnson, author of Hunger for the Wild: America’s Obsession with the Untamed West

Jimmy L. Bryan Jr is associate professor of history at Lamar University. He is the editor of The Martial Imagination: Cultural Aspects of American Warfare and the author of More Zeal Than Discretion: The Westward Adventures of Walter P. Lane.

American Elsewhere guides us through the tortuous and often baleful mental landscapes of American adventurers in the time of Jackson. In chasing the chimera of genuine experience, Bryan’s subjects create both a brotherhood of sentiment and geography of racial difference. Bryan’s grasp of emotional topographies is masterful. Saddle up and follow his lead."" - Daniel Herman, author of Hell on the Range: A Story of Honor, Conscience, and the American West""This book is a compelling investigation of how stories of Western adventurers (explorers, patriot warriors, and men of enterprise) from the end of the War of 1812 to the end of the U.S.-Mexican War romantically redefined the staid conventions of American manhood and thereby promoted a national ethos of manifest destiny. A unique, pivotal study in the cultural history of American exceptionalism and expansionism, it is well researched and plentifully documented, argued with judicious balance and critical discernment, and quite readable."" - Michael L. Johnson, author of Hunger for the Wild: America’s Obsession with the Untamed West