Histories tend to emphasize conquest by Anglo-Americans as the driving force behind the development of the American West. In this fresh interpretation, Jay Gitlin argues that the activities of the French are crucial to understanding the phenomenon of westward expansion.

The Seven Years War brought an end to the French colonial enterprise in North America, but the French in towns such as New Orleans, St. Louis, and Detroit survived the transition to American rule. French traders from Mid-America such as the Chouteaus and Robidouxs of St. Louis then became agents of change in the West, perfecting a strategy of “middle grounding” by pursuing alliances within Indian and Mexican communities in advance of American settlement and re-investing fur trade profits in land, town sites, banks, and transportation. The Bourgeois Frontier provides the missing French connection between the urban Midwest and western expansion.

"Honorable Mention in the Non-Fiction category of the 2009 New England Book Festival sponsored by the Larimar St. Croix Writers Colony, The Hollywood Creative Directory; eDivvy, Shopanista and Westside Websites" - New England Book Festival

"Winner of the 2010 Alf Andrew Heggoy Prize for the best book in French colonial history, given by the French Colonial Historical Society" - French Colonial Historical Society

"The Bourgeois Frontier successfully recreates the French world of the western American borderlands while raising interesting questions about history and memory."—Leslie Choquette, American Historical Review - American Historical Revieq

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“Wonderful…beautifully written and impeccably researched...This study is a tour de force.”—American Historical Review

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“This book serves as a welcome addition to the literature of the West.”—Missouri Historical Review

"This is a well-researched and well-written book about a colonial culture whose last visible remnant was its elite."—Edward Watts, Indiana Magazine of History - Indiana Magazine of History

"[Gitlin's] engaging book is largely a success."—Andrew Cayton, Western Historical Quarterly - Western Historical Quarterly

"“…a remarkable book…an incredibly detailed yet easily digestible narrative…a book that will not easily be dissected, will generate debate, and should help inspire scholarship in this area for some time to come.”—Robert Englebert, Social History" - Social History