Daniel Boone and his buckskin compatriots who settled the first trans-Appalachian frontier, Kentucky, provide the human basis for this original and uncompromising re-evaluation of the American West. Were they indeed "noble savages," creators of new Athens, or did they reflect the brutality of their surroundings and the limitations of their cultural origins? Professor Moore takes the latter view. This amusing, immensely readable book examines the origins, motivations and lives of these frontiersmen who sought an earthly paradise and made a nation in their own image -- Back cover