Table of Contents

List of figures and tables; Acknowledgments; Part I. Human Geography and the Structure of Regional Life: 1. Introduction and 'topographical description'; 2. The land takes shape: the process of settlement; 3. Encountering the rivers; Part II. The Human System: 4. Towns, roads, steamboat routes, and the development of a regional system; 5. The system takes shape: an economic geography; 6. The structure of the regional economy; Part III. The Regional Urban System: 7. The currents of trade and regional urbanization; 8. Town and system: local history in a regional context; Epilogue; Appendixes; Index.

Promotional Information

This book analyzes the development of a distinctive, region along the upper Mississippi River north of St. Louis during the middle third of the nineteenth century.

Reviews

"River Towns in the Great West is a most useful book, one that will have more appeal to historians and economic historians than to the more analytical economists and geographers." Journal of Regional Science "Timothy R. Mahoney makes a significant contribution...with his interesting and assiduously researched study of town development in the upper Mississippi Valley. By focusing on a regional system, Mahoney extends his analysis beyond the limitations he associates with local history and with urban biography. The result is a sophisticated interpretation of how regional forces shaped the development of river towns...An innovative, perceptive, and persuasive analysis of the rise and fall of river towns in the West." The Journal of American History