Kim M. Gruenwald – författare
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2 produkter
2 produkter
River of Enterprise
The Commercial Origins of Regional Identity in the Ohio Valley, 1790-1850
Inbunden, Engelska, 2002
313 kr
Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar
"Gruenwald's book will make the same contribution to historical knowledge of the Ohio Valley as Lewis Atherton's Frontier Merchant did for our understanding of the mercantile Midwest in the mid-nineteenth century. . . . a finely crafted narrative that lets the reader understand that the Ohio River always served more as an artery, that is, a river of commerce, than a dividing line or boundary." —R. Douglas Hurt, author of The Ohio FrontierRiver of Enterprise explores the role the Ohio played in the lives of three generations of settlers from the river's headwaters at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the falls at Louisville, Kentucky. Part One examines the strategies of colonists who coveted lands "Across the Mountains" as space to be conquered. Part Two traces the emergence of a new region in a valley transformed by commerce as the Ohio River became the artery of movement in "the Western Country." Part Three reveals how relations between neighbors across the river cooled as residents of "the Buckeye State" came to regard the river as the boundary between North and South. From 1790 to 1830, the Ohio River nurtured a regional identity as Americans strove to create an empire based on the ties of commerce in frontier Ohio and Kentucky, and the backcountry of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The book studies the local, regional, and national connections created by merchants by tracing the business world of the Woodbridge family of Marietta, Ohio. Only as regional commercial concerns gave way to statewide industrial concerns, and as artificial transportation networks such as canals and railroads supplanted the river, did those living to the north define the Ohio as a boundary.
Philadelphia Merchants on Western Waters
Commerce and Empire in the Riverine West, 1750–1803
Inbunden, Engelska, 2025
720 kr
Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar
How Philadelphia merchants forged trade networks that fueled America's westward expansion.Why did the Midwest become part of the United States instead of remaining under English, Spanish, or Native control? In Philadelphia Merchants on Western Waters, historian Kim M. Gruenwald reveals commerce and trade, rather than war and political conflict, as the driving force behind America's westward expansion. Through meticulous research into business records, Gruenwald brings to life the daring ventures of Philadelphia merchant companies like Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, who sought to dominate the Illinois fur trade, and Reed & Forde, who expanded trade routes while speculating in land warrants. Their efforts laid the foundation for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which unified both banks of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers under one nation and set the stage for America's continental empire. Studying international dealings with French, Spanish, and Native powers, as well as the complexities of river commerce, Gruenwald paints a vivid portrait of a transformative era between the colonial Atlantic world and America's westward push to the Pacific. Commercial expansion into what Gruenwald dubs "the Riverine West" represents a unique era in American history between the Atlantic of the colonial British Empire and the overland journeys of Americans heading across the Great Plains to California and Oregon in the nineteenth century. This book redefines our understanding of how a fledgling republic secured control of its western frontier—not through military conquest but through entrepreneurial spirit.