Why did we create such an
unusual travel book?

History-minded U.S. travelers like ourselves have faced a surprising challenge when planning trips: how to identify interesting destinations. Many of us want a good story and tend to favor specific time periods. Once we've exhausted our own wish-list and the recommen-dations of friends, where do we turn for new ideas?

Conventional guidebooks are organized by cities/states/regions - that's not good when location is secondary to the history experience. Advertising literature is limited in scope and biased. Internet searches are only as good as the search engine and the experience of the person searching. In the end, many interesting historic attractions are missed.

Unable to find a good history-oriented guidebook, we decided to create our own. It focuses on the most formative period of America's past - the time before the 1840s westward movement - and it invites readers to make their travel choices based not only on location but also on chapters in history. Here you will find premier visitor attractions along with background perspectives and 500 color photos.