Retired public historian Walter Dunn has given us a good, old-fashioned narrative economic history that describes the importance of the frontier during “a crucial time in American history filled with turmoil that ruptured a once amicable relationship between the thirteen colonies and Great Britain” (p. 1). Dunn is no econometrician, but his work shows a solid understanding of neoclassical economic principles. His writing is sharp and clear, if generally unexciting due to the overwhelming number of detailed examples that he often supplies.