Boom and Bust in the Old West, 1815–60

The explosive growth of the American West, from about 1 million people in 1815 to over 15 million in 1860, stunned observers from the day it began. This book argues that it can best be understood as three great overlapping rounds of boom, bust, and export rescue — or explosive colonization and recolonization — pivoting on the well-known ‘Panics’ of 1819, 1837, and 1857. There were regional variations, but broadly speaking Boom One lasted from 1815 to 1819, Boom Two from 1825 to 1837, and Boom Three from 1846 to 1857. Two of the four quarters, Northeast and Southeast, lay in oldland, Atlantic, America, and two in the ‘Old West’. The bust of 1857 was perhaps less severe than the earlier crashes, and varied regionally even more. The bust hurt most at the boom's two poles — the Old Northwest and New York City.