Wonderful history of the West and different well knows who help find the West! Characters are so life like,moved through so many different periods of history in Kansas! Got this through Net Galley,thank you so much for this down deep book! It's a must read and care way should be used in school! Love history and this is so very much researched! Hated to see the book end! I don't go into so much detail on what's what I'm the book cause to me if you do why read the book!!Kansas,what we go though to move there,who we met along the way,the war,North and South,the dangers and joys in living a new life! Characters are out standing,colorful! A very good read got this through Net Galley! Follow a very young man,Ezra Middleton who has his lawyers degree to go out West to Kansas and set up a office but along the way he runs into all sorts of people and problems! As he goes he reports to a newspaper to let the world know what's going on in the West and this war,the newspaper he works for is called,Globe Democrat... States right over which state will have slavery or no which turns out to be a war called,The Civil War that's what the North calls it,the South calls it,War between the South. Follow Ezra's fantastic and exciting career and the politics that made this country and made Kansas.I reread this book and I wanted to revise my review this is Dec.2020!

"Till We Have Built Jerusalem"wonderfully evocative. The Wars That built the United States is a journey from which we hope we can never return—we recognize the heartbreaking , loss and courage in times of War, building a Country, and the High cost of Freedom, to become a civilized Nation. ..

Couldn't get into it so I didn't finish. From what I read it seemed like it was written well but just wasn't my cup of tea.

this is the story of the settlement of Kansas from the early 1840s through the end of the Civil War. We follow the life of Ezra Middleton from the time he leaves St Louis to be a reporter on "Bleeding Kansas" after the passing of the Kansas/Nebraska Act. He works as a reporter for a St Louis newspaper for Eastern Kansas.

Since he is also a lawyer, he is determined to open an office from which he can support his family and wife. During the Civil War his hometown is destroyed by Quantrill's Raiders, with many civilians murdered. Ezra joins the local militia and is involved with the victorious Union forces having caught the Rebel Irregulars in a trap.

This story reads like diary entries in someones journals, which Ezra kept to keep a paper trail as to his life in Kansas. Mostly written in first person narrative, it's a quick read.

This was a very moving portrayal of events that are little-known in American history. I saw in the transformation of the character from neutral reporter to active participant in righting the injustices of that time a parallel to many of today's events and people. The characters were very believable and well-developed and the writing style made me forget, at times, that I was not reading a real first-person account of the events portrayed. The only complaint I have is that some of the battle scenes come across a little flat.