On Turner's Trail

"Jacobs has written a delightful book, jammed with insights. It is an indispensable companion to Billington’s biography and a remarkable achievement by its author."—Montana The Magazine of Western History

"Moving from intellectual biography to critical historiography, Jacobs reviews the legacy of Turner on both ‘real western’ and ‘new western’ historians. Entering the debate between traditionalists and revisionists, Jacobs provides an interesting twist by probing the divisions within each camp. Particularly noteworthy is Jacobs’s reconstruction of the feud between Frederick Merk, the appointed heir, and Ray Billington, the consummate networker, for control of the Turnerian mantle."—Pacific Historical Review

"Jacobs has crafted an impressive narrative out of abstract, intellectual history. Western scholars will find On Turner’s Trail an interesting, personal story of historians, their ideas, and the ups, downs, and unexpected turns that reward, punish, and confound them. Jacobs’ study deserves high praise and a wide audience."—Great Plains Research

"Professional historians will find this volume most worthwhile, and discriminating general readers will be profoundly rewarded."—Annals of Iowa

"Engagingly written, wisely argued, filled with fresh anecdotes and effective details, On Turner’s Trail paints a complex portrait of a man and his ideas."—Indiana Magazine of History

"Jacobs breaks from both the too-positive views of Ray Billington and the excessively negative comments of recent Turner bashers. He draws readers into his argument and supplies them with a good deal of new information, judiciously argued and pleasingly delivered. An important study."—Richard W. Etulain, editor of Writing Western History

"A truly gifted historian, Jacobs has crafted a lively and readable narrative. In a convincing and provocative fashion, he argues that several self-proclaimed non-Turnerian scholars and leaders of the new western history not only owe an intellectual debt to Turner but also are unconscious disciples of him."—Jack L. August, Jr., author of From Horseback to Helicopter

"A wonderfully fascinating account of the development of Turner’s ideas and of their use by other historians. None who wish to understand the Turnerian legacy in American history can ignore this book. It informs, it illuminates, and if it will sometimes sadden students of the historian’s craft, it will also sometimes amuse them. Great stuff!"—Allan G. Bogue, Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"A telling commentary on the persistence of Turner’s influence into the era of the new Western history. Jacobs also opens a window on professional rivalry, ‘warts and all,’ among some prominent Turnerians."—Norris Hundley, author of The Great Thirst: California and Water, 1770s–1990s