A memorable account of a forgotten chapter in American history If you think that America's western expansion began on the banks of the Mississippi, think again. In West from Shenandoah, Thomas A. Lewis tells the powerful and inspiring story of America's first westerners, the fiercely independent Scotch-Irish immigrants who flocked to America in the early eighteenth century. Arriving too late to claim land along the coast, they settled in the rich and peaceful Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia and, in less than a generation, began moving west into the uncharted Appalachian wilderness, which had been ignored by the English for more than a century. Focusing on the exploits of one remarkable family, Lewis examines the reasons for this remarkable migration, explores relations between the settlers and the Native Americans they began to displace, and reveals why the American Revolution could not have been won without the indispensable contribution of these Scotch-Irish pioneers. Praise for Thomas A. Lewis Guns of Cedar Creek "Brutally realistic . . . rich in political and military relevance for our time." -- The New York Times For King and Country " A rare narrative skill. Lewis writes the kind of history that reminds us that history has a muse, that it is an essential human art." -- The Los Angeles Times