"Horsman has effectively analyzed American policy during a critical period. Throughout there are two themes: feuding between the national government and the states over who would formulate and execute Indian policy; and the contrast between the humanitarian instincts frequently moticating policy makers in the national capital and the injustice that the Indians experienced on the frontier....Much of his book deals with how the United States government tried to reconcile the 'Spirit of '76'with the land hunger of aggressive frontiersmen."-Journal of Southern History