In this revised and expanded paperback edition of the first ever published biography of Robert Campbell, author William Nester explores the letters, journals and account books that Campbell left behind to place him in the context of the times in which he lived. Showing the economic, political, social and cultural forces that provided the opportunities and challenges that shaped Campbell’s life, Nester provides a look at his life from his days in the fur trade, through the growth of St. Louis and the Civil War to his death in 1879.