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This remarkable, innovative book portrays the American experience in microcosm, Gerald McFarland tells the story of U.S. westward expansion through the stories of his own ancestors -- from their arrival in Massachusetts in 1630, through successive generations that moved west, at length reaching the West Coast in 1900.

The movement of millions of ordinary people westward across the American continent was one of the great folk migrations of all time, stretching over two centuries and thousands of hard-traveled miles. Using a canvas as broad as the country itself, Gerald McFarland turns this journey into a resonant personal experience by retelling the stories of five generations of a single, real family—who are, in fact, his own pioneer ancestors. A Scattered People is a true-life saga that takes us from colonial settlements along the east coast to the California shore at the dawn of the twentieth century. Its cast is as rich as a historical novel’s: a born-again Christian farmer in eighteenth-century Connecticut; a Davy Crockettish rifleman in frontier Virginia; an infantryman at Antietam; a bold teen-age girl who forsakes Kansas for a New Mexico schoolhouse. They become our witnesses for the era’s key events: the American Revolution, the Indian wars, the Gold Rush, Bleeding Kansas and Harper’s Ferry, the Civil War, the Chicago Fire, booms and busts, political battles and technological upheavals. By fits and starts, by foot and oxen, covered wagon and rail, the succeeding generations make their way west, and we watch a family tree—and a nation—develop and grow. What motivated men and women to take the risks of such moves, and what actually awaited them in each new home? By recreating in close focus that fundamental act of democratic aspiration—pulling up stakes and moving west—A Scattered People gives us an intimate and surprising new sense of the meaning of the American Dream.

Don Carlos Buenaventura, the protagonist of The Last of Our Kind, is a powerful brujo living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a remote settlement on the edge of Spain’s North American empire. The year is 1706. Comanche war parties are boldly conducting raids nearby, French traders and soldiers are aggressively expanding toward New Mexico from the Great Plains, and agents of the Spanish Inquisition have arrived in search of a brujo suspected of being in Santa Fe. That brujo is Don Carlos, respected citizen under the name of Don Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca, his true identity known only to a small coterie of friends. Given the many dangers that threaten the town, will he be able to bring his powers to bear and still keep his brujo identity secret? When his mortal enemy, a sorcerer with formidable powers, arrives on the scene in the midst of these troubles, how will Don Carlos figure out a way to deal with him? Includes Readers Guide.

When Russell Colvin disappeared in 1812, no one in Manchester thought much of it. He tended, after all, to wander. But by 1819 people began to suspect Stephen and Jesse Boorn of murdering their brother-in-law. To understand why so many neighbors believed the Boorns innocent for so long, and why seven years passed before town authorities launched an investigation of Colvin's disappearance, it is, of course, important to learn what facts were known, when, and by whom. However, it is equally important to ascertain how these facts were interpreted, and why they were interpreted as they were. What, in other words, was it about Russell Colvin, the Boorns, and the town of Manchester that shaped the public's response in such a way that an official inquiry into Colvin's disappearance was delayed so long? Or did it all have to do with ghostly sightings of Colvin?

A vibrant portrait of a celebrated urban enclave at the turn of the twentieth century.

Differing significantly from previous studies, McFarland's approach to the Mugwumps provides a balanced portrait of these Yankee reformers and their campaigns against boss rule in cities, corruption in national affairs, and American imperialism abroad. The conventional approach has been to concentrate on only a dozen or so of the best known Mugwumps and to trace their careers no further than 1900. In contrast, McFarland greatly extends the number of individuals whose activities must be considered reflections of the movement, discussing a sample of hundreds of active Mugwumps, and traces their careers well into the twentieth century. Mugwump orthodoxy is demonstrated by an examination of their largely negative goals in the anti-Blaine bolt of 1884, their narrow political program during the late 1880s, and their politically disastrous loyalty to Grover Cleveland. But their innovative side is also highlighted by a searching analysis of their successes, including their participation in the movement to professionalize such occupations as law, medicine, and higher education, and their contributions to urban, political, and social reform.

Don Carlos Buenaventura, a powerful brujo in his sixth life, practices a benign form of sorcery based on his motto “Do no harm.” His great powers derive from intensive training in heightened awareness akin to Eastern yogic disciplines rather than from incantations, spells, or aid from demon allies. He is accidentally born in 1684 into an aristocratic Catholic family in Mexico City, a social and religious milieu in which his identity as a brujo, if known, would put him in mortal danger. In repressing any sign that he is other than an ordinary young man, he forgets both his brujo powers and who he really is. Exiled at nineteen to the remote frontier town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, he is exposed during the journey northward to wild desert landscapes that awaken his forgotten powers. In Santa Fe he resumes his conventional persona to protect what he now recognizes is his true identity and is caught in the tension of trying to live two lives. An arduous return trip to Mexico City and back further intensifies his brujo powers, leading to many adventures, including dangerous encounters with an evil sorcerer, an Apache war party, and a woman devotee of an ancient Aztec goddess, and also stimulates his recall, in dreams, of his brujo training in past lives. A chance meeting in Mexico City with a woman trained in Tantric spirituality is life-changing, opening him to other dimensions of consciousness. Returning to Santa Fe, he faces the task of learning to unite his Brujo’s Way with his new spiritual path.

The second volume in the Buenaventura Series and the sequel to The Brujo’s Way, opens in December 1705 with a terrifying nightmare that fills Don Carlos Buenaventura, a powerful brujo in his sixth life, with dread. Feeling the need to strengthen his brujo powers, always weakened by town life, he rides out into the wild mountain landscapes around Santa Fe in order to practice his sorcerer’s technique of transforming himself into hawks and owls. Transformations are exhilarating, but they do not dispel his sense of an impending menace. In addition, as he tells his friend Inéz de Recalde, whom he has rescued from a difficult past and to whom he has declared his love, he is impatient to move forward in his quest for wisdom on what he calls the Unknown Way. Into this picture comes a trio of itinerant entertainers, a magician and two women dancers, who offer an ambiguous promise. Can they lead him to deeper realms of consciousness, or are they agents of his enemy, the evil sorcerer Don Malvolio? The magician and his alluring companions introduce Carlos to dances that transport him into ecstatic mind states, but he remains uncertain about what master they serve. Despite the risk of exposing his secret brujo identity and of being disloyal to Inéz, Carlos allows himself to be drawn ever farther into their web of dark and dangerous enchantments. Includes Readers Guide.

Abolitionist John Brown's family journeyed across the United States to start a new life in the West.