The Homestead Act: American Identity and the Conquest of the West

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 1.5 million families a path to the American Dream through 160-acre land grants that spurred mass migration and shaped U.S. identity. Historian Edward T. O’Donnell examines both the familiar narrative and the overlooked realities: many homesteaders failed; fraud and weak oversight let railroads and ranchers amass huge tracts; and the influx of white settlers intensified violent conflict with Native Americans, transforming the trans-Mississippi West.