Kentucky: A Pioneer Commonwealth
By N.S. Shaler
Published by Houghton, Mifflin And Company: Boston 1885 1st Edition
"Nathaniel Southgate Shaler's Kentucky: A Pioneer Commonwealth forms part of the celebrated American Commonwealths series, edited by Horace E. Scudder to present authoritative histories of the individual American states. A distinguished geologist, Harvard professor and former Kentucky State Geologist, Shaler approached the subject not simply as a chronicle of events, but as an examination of the geographical, social and political forces that shaped Kentucky from its earliest frontier settlements into a mature American state. Rather than attempting an exhaustive history, he sought to explain the motives, character and circumstances that produced Kentucky's distinctive identity.
Beginning with the state's origins as Virginia's western frontier, Shaler traces the migration of pioneer families through the Cumberland Gap, the struggles of frontier life, relations with Native American peoples, and Kentucky's admission to the Union in 1792. He examines the Commonwealth's rapid agricultural and economic development, the influence of slavery, political evolution, and the profound divisions created by the American Civil War. Supplemented by a detailed foldout map and extensive appendices, including the famous Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, the work combines narrative history with thoughtful analysis of the institutions and ideals that underpinned one of America's earliest frontier states.
Today this handsome 1885 first edition is appreciated both for its scholarly importance and as an attractive nineteenth-century production. Bound in its original half leather with marbled boards, endpapers and text block, it retains the period elegance expected of Houghton, Mifflin's quality publications. The Adelaide Circulating Library label and embossed ownership stamps provide an appealing Australian provenance, reflecting the journey of this American historical work into colonial South Australia. Complete with its original folding map of Kentucky, it remains a desirable example of the influential American Commonwealths series for collectors of American history, frontier studies, and finely bound nineteenth-century books."
