Here is the original 19th century manual that helped pioneering Americans homestead a continent—with detailed instructions on how to build birch bark or tar paper shacks, a sawed-lumber shanty, a sod house, log cabins and much more. Whether you are a student of history, a screenwriter looking for authentic details or a modern homesteader looking for authentic advice on how to build the way our grandparents did, then D.C. Beard’s manual is just what you’re looking for. Go back to basics with this classic of American ingenuity!