THE COURSE OF EMPIRE -USED GOOD

• Title: The Course of Empire

• Author: Bernard DeVoto

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston)

• Printing Press: The Riverside Press (Cambridge, MA)

• Copyright/Publication Year: 1952

• Cartography: Features highly detailed, essential historical maps by Erwin Raisz.

Historical Significance

Bernard DeVoto was an absolute titan of mid-century Western history. This book won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1953 and serves as the crowning climax to his monumental "Trilogy of the West" (the other two being The Year of Decision: 1846 and Across the Wide Missouri, which you already encountered).

The Course of Empire covers three centuries of North American exploration, tracing how European powers and early Americans struggled to comprehend the vast geography of the continent, concluding with the triumph of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The cloth binding is structured and square, and the gilt on the spine remains reasonably bright and legible. There is minor, standard rubbing to the cloth at the outer corners and the extremities of the spine (the head and foot), which is typical for a book of this age.