Paths to Possession

Paths to Possession, Volume 1, subtitled Transportation Infrastructure and American Expansion, examines how roads, waterways, and railroads drove the United States' western growth. James R. Stocker's history traces the transformation of Indigenous homelands into American territory, showing how transport corridors became instruments of colonial power, military reach, and economic gain from early European settlement through the Early Republic.

The book highlights the dual role these routes played - settlers used them for trade and land speculation, but Indigenous peoples also controlled and challenged expansion along these same paths. Stocker's analysis, supported by seventeen original maps, offers a material-focused reinterpretation of American expansion, revealing the contested nature of infrastructure and the dispossession that accompanied it. This thoughtful work reshapes our understanding of how transportation shaped the nation's history.