Includes Index and Bilbliography

1. The frontier hypothesis --
Section 1. The colonial frontier --
2. The land and its people --
3. Europe's first frontier, 1492-1615 --
4. The southern frontier, 1600-1700 --
5. The northern frontier, 1600-1700 --
6. The Old West, 1700-1763 --
7. The French barrier, 1615-1763 --
8. British western policy, 1763-1776 --
9. Settlement crosses the mountains, 1763-1776 --
10. The west in the American Revolution, 1776-1783 --
Section 2. The trans-Appalachian frontier --
11. The western problem, 1783-1790 --
12. The west in American diplomacy, 1783-1803 --
13. Settling the Appalachian plateau, 1795-1812 --
14. The West in the War of 1812, 1812-1815 --
15. Settling the Lake Plains, 1815-1850 --
16. Settling the Gulf Plains, 1815-1850 --
17. The new West : a national problem, 1815-1850 --
Section III. The trans-Mississippi frontier --
18. The natural setting --
19. The Spanish barrier, 1540-1776 --
20. The traders' frontier, 1776-1840 --
21. The Mississippi Valley frontier, 1803-1840 --
22. The annexation of Texas, 1820-1845 --
23. The occupation of Oregon, 1825-1846 --
24. The Great Basin frontier, 1830-1846 --
25. The conquest of California, 1830-1846 --
26. The war with Mexico, 1846-1850 --
27. The west and slavery, 1850-1860 --
28. The miners' frontier, 1858-1875 --
29. The transportation frontier, 1858-1884 --
30. The Indian barrier, 1860-1887 --
31. The cattlemen's frontier, 1865-1887 --
32. Opening the Great Plains, 1870-1890 --
33. The farmers' frontier, 1870-1890 --
34. The agrarian revolt, 1873-1896 --
35. The frontier heritage.