Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West

Many survey histories of the western United States all seem to suffer from the same issues such as when to start them, but more importantly where to make the cut-off. This book is no different as it starts really early, but then struggles on when to stop and often struggles with geographic boundaries as well; though most historians often stick to around the Rockies and west in terms of geographic dispersal. This is an all-encompassing book and because of that H. W. Brands only has time to hit the hit points, focusing on the major issues and events and often just at a cursory level before moving on. He does not spend much time in one place and as a reader, you are constantly moving around from one locale to another, with really no rhyme or reason beyond a major event happened. There is little to connect the dots between events, or if they have any true coloration with each other. It is said that history writing about the western United States has struggled in recent years, and this book is further proof that it continues to struggle to this day.