Frontier Illinois

An excellent and thorough study of early Illinois. Dr. Davis uses a broad range of sources to provide a needed account of the state's frontier period.

Read this book when it was first released and have not been able to keep it out of my mind ever since, so I just finished reading it again. As a student of history, my greatest interest is in how the people lived and felt who shaped the events we call history. James F. Davis helped me to visualize how people lived and how they felt about the events they affected and that effected them. Especially impressive is his understanding of the mindsets of Yankees and Southerners and how this evolved as the State matured and grew. I give "Frontier Illinois" my highest unqualified recommendation.

Frontier Illinois is a welcome addition to anyone's regional history collection. Dr. Davis has done an admirable job of compiling statistics, anecdotes and insight into a quite readable and understandable work. For those who might consider acquainting themselves with Illinois' place in the development of the frontier, this fits the bill. However, unlike the reader from Springfield, I found no discrepancy between the numbers in dispute on pages 286-287. Clearly, the first listing of mortality(227 deaths) was in reference to the total number for the country from June 1st, 1849 to June 1st of 1850. The second number was listed as `seven murders in Illinois between June 1, 1849 and June 1, 1850'. Any error here is on the part of the reviewer from Springfield.

Historian James E. Davis has once again contributed a scholarly, yet readable book on midwestern history. The Illinois frontier has been a favorite topic of researchers for decades, but few before Professor Davis have managed to provide such a succinct, fascinating account. After reading the comments from the Springfield, Illinois, reviewer, however, I went back to my copy of the book and I would like to take issue with the rather nasty sniping and at the same time help with his/her counting. Dr. Davis most certainly does NOT get his figures mixed up. The last part of the paragraph on page 287-88 states: "'Mortality Statistics of the Seventh Census of the UNITED STATES [emphasis mine], 1850,' classified deaths occurring from June 1, 1849, to June 1, 1850. The census revealed 227 murders during these twelve months. Illinois' population was 851,470, about 3.66 percent of the national total. Census figures revealed seven murders IN ILLINOIS [emphasis mine] between June 1, 1849 and June 1, 1850, or about 3.08 percent of the nation's murders." As my 12-year-old son pointed out, the first figure is national, while the second is for Illinois. I would suggest that if the Springfield reviewer has a personal vendetta with Dr. Davis, then he/she should at least come up with valid, scholarly criticisms, rather than rely on cheap theatrics in an anonymous review