{"product_id":"john-sutter-a-life-on-the-north-american-frontier-9780806139296","title":"John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Hurtado L. Albert\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: University of Oklahoma Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Adventurers \u0026amp; Explorers\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the history of the American frontier, John Sutter (1803-1880) looms large. A Swiss expatriate who attempted to create a personal empire in California's Sacramento Valley, he founded New Helvetia, a cosmopolitan settlement whose economy depended on Indian slaves and free laborers. New Helvetia drew overland immigrants to California in the 1840s and then-after gold was discovered by Sutter's employees-a flood of fortune seekers. Sutter was poised to become one of the richest men in the West, but rapacious settlers and his own poor business sense sent his dreams crashing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlbert L. Hurtado has written the definitive biography of Sutter, mining a wealth of sources to create the first fully documented account of the man and his times. \u003cem\u003eJohn Sutter\u003c\/em\u003e explores Sutter's life in the broader context of America's rush for westward expansion while plumbing the inner dynamics of this erstwhile empire-builder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSutter was a quintessential outsider driven by anxiety over status-a man of talent, vision, and heroic ambitions who nevertheless became the victim of his own inadequacies as a businessman and his inability to adjust to a rapidly changing frontier. Sutter was full of contradictions. While building a reputation as a humanitarian friend of destitute immigrants, he callously exploited Indians. Nevertheless, this penniless dreamer became one of the most important men in California and a major player in the American conquest of the West.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atlantic Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46418599510167,"sku":"9780806139296","price":2656.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780806139296.webp?v=1769071470","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/john-sutter-a-life-on-the-north-american-frontier-9780806139296","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}