| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 184 words from this article are provided below; about 370 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier. By Albert L. Hurtado. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006. xviii, 412 pp. $34.95, ISBN 0-8061-3772-X.)
Though long overdue, the now-graying "new western history" has finally caught up with the California pioneer Johann August Sutter. Building on the preliminary reassessments that he and others contributed to Kenneth Owens's 1994 anthology, John Sutter and a Wider West, the historian Albert L. Hurtado has at last produced the first full-length and scholarly account of the rapacious con man and brutal self-promoter whom time transformed into a frontier hero.	1
Thanks to nostalgia's mysterious alchemy, posterity has long portrayed Sutter as the visionary agent of American Manifest Destiny who prepared Mexican California for delivery to Uncle Sam. Frequently depicted as an affable and generous greeter, welcoming wagon trains into his famous fort at Sacramento, Sutter has received far too much credit for the epic events that swirled around him during the critical years 1846–1850: the Bear Flag Revolt, the American conquest, the gold rush, and the admission of California into the Union.	. . .

There are about 370 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.