Agents of Empire

Deeply researched and richly detailed, Agents of Empire makes a forceful argument as well as an engaging read. While Cascadia is generally viewed as a progressive area of the country, James Robbins Jewell reminds us that the region's 'founders' were more complex and had a very different definition of 'progress' than we have today. Thus, Jewell's work is not just an analysis of the process of the re-peopling of the Pacific Northwest and its establishment and growth but also has the power to illuminate many contemporary issues in the region today. -Christopher M. Rein, author of The Second Colorado Cavalry: A Civil War Regiment on the Great Plains Oregon may have been far from the seat of the rebellion, but the Civil War found its way to the Pacific Northwest. This excellent examination of the hard-riding Oregon Cavalry Volunteers is more than a regimental history. It reveals the extraordinary challenges of waging war in this remote region against Native peoples who tragically found themselves caught between waves of westering white civilians and increasingly aggressive military operations by volunteer soldiers. Agents of Empire is a welcome addition to the growing body of work on the Civil War in the Far West, adding new dimensions and richness to our understanding of the war's impact on the entire nation and its diverse peoples. -Andrew E. Masich, author of Civil War in the Southwest Borderlands