Forts of the American Frontier 1776-1891 ─ California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska

This title explores the contribution made by settlers, explorers, traders and goldseekers of various nations to the nascent architecture of the West Coast of the United States. In doing so, it charts the progress westwards of those who claimed new land as their own, and defended it with forts and blockhouses, and the resulting conflicts with indigenous Native American peoples. Packed with detailed illustrations, this book provides a fascinating study of the westward advance of modern America, and covers sites such as Fort Point at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, the Presidio of San Francisco, Fort Guijarros in San Diego, California, Fort Humboldt in Eureka, California, Sutter's Fort, the 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in California, and Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Washington and Oregon.

Until his retirement in 2007, Ron Field was Head of History at the Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1982 and taught history at Piedmont High School in California from 1982 to 1983. He was associate editor of the Confederate Historical Society of Great Britain, from 1983 to 1992. He is an internationally acknowledged expert on US military history, and was elected a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians, based in Washington, DC, in 2005.