"In 1790, it was not a given that the young United States, bruised and healing from its struggle for independence and populated by fewer than 4 million inhabitants, would even survive, much less flourish. But the great adventure that came next--the exploration and settlement of the lands lying to the west and stretching to the Pacific Ocean--would build a nation where only a patchwork of eastern seaboard colonies had existed before. [This book] follows...