Book Description
In cooperation with the Plimoth Plantation, a living-history museum in Massachusetts, National Geographic has recreated the first Thanksgiving. Photographs by National Geographic photographers of the recreation at Plimoth Plantation illustrate this book.In 1621, in a small settlement on the edge of the sea, 52 English colonists celebrated their first harvest. The colonists were joined by 90 men of the Wampanoag tribe for a gathering that was to last three days in a town now known as Plymouth.Over the centuries, there have been countless versions of this story, creating a popular myth of the first Thanksgiving. Many Americans imagine brave, peaceful settlers inviting a few wild Indians over for a turkey dinner. But there was no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce at this celebration. There were no Indians with woven blankets over their shoulders and large feathered headdresses. No pilgrims with somber black clothes and silver buckle hats either. The English didn't even call themselves Pilgrims.This book puts aside that myth and takes a new look at our American history. It questions what we know and recovers lost voices of the Wampanoag people. True history includes the voices of all its participants. 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving invites young people to read, listen, and think about our shared history.The book also features a foreword, a section on the actual reenactment and the concept of living history, a chronology, an index, and a bibliography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Informed History
Informed History - This is what we should be teaching our children.This should be a standard in every classroom!Beautiful pictures too!

1621 : A New Look at Thanksgiving
Excellent resource for units on Native American cultures or communities. My students are doing a unit on communities using Plymouth colony and the Wampanoag tribe as examples of early communities. Great resource to accompany Tampenum's Day, Sarah Morton's Day, Samuel Eaton's Day and other books about Plymouth colony.

New Perspectives on Thanksgiving
What did they really eat at the first Thanksgiving?

Venison, roast duck, roast goose, clams and other shellfish, succulent eels, white bread, corn bread, leeks and watercress, wild plums and dried berries, wild grape wine.

How did the pilgrims come to find an Indian that spoke English when they arrived in the New World?

Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, had been kidnapped by earlier explorers, but had managed to return to his home in what is now called New England.

Was the first Thanksgiving really in 1621?

In the fall of 1621 the Pilgrims spent 3 days celebrating their first harvest in the New World with at least 90 Native American guests, but the pilgrims never referred to this as a day of thanksgiving. It was in 1623 when a two month drought ended after their fervent prayers that the first recorded religious thanksgiving day occurred.This day focused more on worship than on feasting.

The book 1621 A New Look at Thanksgiving is published by the National Geographic Society, which is evidenced by the excellence of its photographs.It was put together with the help of the folks at Plimouth Plantation, a living history museum of 17th century Plymouth, located in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The information is not primarily in the form of a story. The chapters are short, just a few pages, rather like photo essays, and they tend to stand by themselves, allowing the reader to pick and choose.

The authors believe they have significant new perspectives to share.
" There was neither cranberry sauce nor pumpkin pie at the 1621 harvest celebration. There were no Indians with woven blankets over their shoulders and large feathered headdresses cascading down their backs.There were no Pilgrims in somber black clothes and tall hats with silver buckles, either. The English didn't even call themselves Pilgrims at the time"

In giving information about the first Thanksgiving there are a few chapters sharing from the viewpoint of theWampanoag native people, as well as a page about the history of the holiday, a chronology, and a couple of recipes, including this one for Stewed Pompion.

4 cups of cooked pumpkin or squash (seeded, and steamed or baked), roughly mashed
3 tablespoons butter
2 to 3 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 or 2 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir and heat all the ingredients together. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve hot.

We used concentrated apple juice and regular vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. It has a rustic authentic flavor, which no one in our house enjoyed too much except me. For a family of four a half batch is probably sufficient.

The website for Plimouth Plantation is http://www.plimoth.org/
You can read a lot there about the Indians, the people we call the pilgrims, the first thanksgiving, the settlement at Plymouth, and of course the living history museum. For those with a high speed connection I recommend clicking Online Fun - Become a Historian! on the home page. This activity teaches about how history is researched and recorded as well as about what is commonly known as the First Thanksgiving.

A Refreshing View ofthe real Thanksgiving
I highly recommend this book. As the daughter of a Cherokee-English African-American woman,educator and grandmother I was always taught the truth along with my brothers about this very important holiday/harvest festival.Early on we were taught to share what we had with the less fortunate and to give to others who really needed something.Also my grandmother the late,great Hattie Little-Tabor who was my mom's mother fed homless people who stopped by her home during the Great Depression.This book brought back full circle the fact that we must all strive to work together to overcome greed to serve all in need. I highly recommend this book.

An exquisite book
This is a beautifully written and exquisitely photographed book about the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621 (according to the Western calendar).The photos were taken during re-enactments at Plimoth Plantation, and are historically accurate as well as lovely to look at.The text gives theWampanoag perspective on the event with sensitivity and vibrancy.All in a book that is clearly successful in engaging young readers, no matter how much or how little they already know--or think they know--aboutthe history of Thanksgiving. ... Read more

Book Description
Between 1803 and 1853, the new seaboard republic of the United States acquired a vast empire of plains, mountains, and deserts west of the Mississippi River. Its borders fixed on the Pacific, it gloried in its new stature as a continental Nation. But most of the new domain lay unconquered and unknown except to scattered Indian tribes and a few explorers and mountain men. In the next half-century, soldiers, traders, road and railway builders, and other adventurers helped fill in the map of the American West. Overshadowing them all in actually subduing the land, however, were the prospector, cowhand, and sodbuster.

Though these three types of pioneers fostered exaggerated stereotypes that still live in American folklore, each shared decisively in shaping the history of the West. And each left tangible evidences of his passage across the land that recall for today's generation the contributions of frontier mining, stockraising, and farming to the making of America.

This volume surveys the legacy of historic sites and buildings bequeathed by these actors in the drama of conquering the West. ... Read more

Product Description
A study of the growing interest in celebrating Christmas from the Puritan age, when this was forbidden, through the present ... Read more

Book Description

In the spring of 2002, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will launch a landmark four-year traveling exhibition that will premier at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and tour to leading museums in nine major cities across the United States. The show will bring the Hall of Fame's treasures, including rare baseball images and artifacts, to every American in a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the game that has defined our nation.

Customer Reviews (4)

A baseball book that is like taking a trip to Cooperstown
"Baseball as America: Seeing Ourselves Through Our National Game" was the companion volume the landmark traveling exhibition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.As its thesis this book takes Jacques Barzun's declaration "Who ever wants to know the heart and mind of American had better learn baseball."Within these 320 pages you will find yourself exploring every aspect of the American pastime lavishly illustrated and even long time baseball fans will be surprised at how much they will read and see that is new to them.

After an introduction by Jules Tygiel, which features a 1860 Currier and Ives lithograph showing Lincoln and his opponents for the presidency describing their platforms in baseball terms, "Baseball as America" is divided into seven units: Our National Spirit, Ideals and Injustices, Rooting for the Team, Enterprise and Opportunity, Sharing a Common Culture, Invention and Ingenuity, and Weaving Myths.Within these pages you will find Robert K. Adair explaining the science of the curve ball invented by Candy Cummings but first explained by a 23 year old Isaac Newton and Paul Simon explaining to Joe DiMaggio his use of Joltin' Joe's name as an emblematic icon in the song "Mrs. Robinson." There is Dan Shaughnessy's "Obituary of Elizabeth Dooley" the legendary Boston Red Sox fan and Buck O'Neil explaining how the Chicago Cubs traded away future Hall of Famer Lou Brock because the team already had three black outfielders.Then there are the letters Curt Flood and Bowie Kuhn exchanged when the outfielder refused to be traded from the Cardinals to the Phillies.You might remember Flood's letter from Ken Burns' documentary "Baseball," but here we have Kuhn's response.

Of course Ernest L. Thayer's ballad of the republic "Casey at the Bat" will be found here, along with a Charles Schulz "Peanuts" cartoon of Charlie Brown praying to catch a baseball, Bob Newhart's "Nobody Will Every Play Baseball" routine, and excerpts from W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe."There are photographs of the famous Honus Wagner T206 1909 baseball card, Eddie Gaedel's 1/8 St. Louis Browns jersey, Shoeless Joe Jackson's shoes, Lou Gehrig on the cover of a program from the American baseball tour of Japan in 1931, "Babe Ruth Underwear," and the patent and model for F.W. Thayer's 1878 catcher's mask.Then there is the poster of the elephants playing baseball for the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Then there is the juxtaposition of words and images: Joe Raposos's lyrics to the Frank Sinatra song "There Used to Be a Ballpark" with a photograph of the demolition of the Polo Grounds.There is an excerpt from Bernard Malamud's "The Natural" with the cowbell Hilda Chester used at Ebbets Field and a photograph of Andre Dawson's final visit to Wrigley Field. A photo of Satchel Paige of the Kansas City Monarchs warming up at Yankee Stadium and Ted Williams' 1966 induction speech at the Hall of Fame where he surprised the crowd with his call to honor the stars of the Negro Leagues. A letter from Fiorello LaGuardia in 1945 about a committee formed to end segregation in baseball opposite a pair of photographs showing black kids and white kids clutching Walter Johnson board games and waiting to meet their favorite baseball star.

The back of the book includes a list of the selections from the collection broken down into baseballs (handmade ball made by Babe Ruth at school), baseball cards (1952 Topps Mickey Mantle), bats (George Brett's "pine tar" bat), books, booklets, and periodicals (comic book "Roy Campanella Baseball Hero"), broadsides, handbills, and posters (handbill urging integration of the New York Yankees), caps (Hideo Nomos no-hitter cap), cartoons ("Base Ball as Viewed by a Muffin" from 1867), communications equipment (Red Barber's first microphone), decorative art (theater lobby card for "The Jackie Robinson Story"), fan art and fine art ("Tom Seaver" by Andy Warhol), games and toys ("darktown battery" cast iron mechanical bank from 1888), gloves and mitts (Yogi Berra's mitt from Don Larsen's perfect World Series game), jerseys and uniforms (1976 Chicago White Sox Bermuda shorts), jewelry (charm bracelet made from championship jewelry given by Lou Gehrig to his wife), letters and documents (All-Star ballot filled out by Casel Stengel), medical-related items (ethyl chloride numbing spray), merchandise (Reggie Bar wrapper), miscellaneous equipment (prototype JUGS Speed Gun), programs and scorecards (program for first Colored World Series), sheet music and records (1908 Edison Wax cylinder record of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and magic lantern slide), shoes (worn by Ty Cobb), souvenirs (1961 button, "I'm for Maris--60 in '61), stadium equipment/artifacts (turnstile from the Polo Grounds), tickets and season passes (ticket to Lou Gehrig Day), and trophies and awards (Cy Young Award given to Sandy Koufax).

So you can get a very good idea of what you missed out from the traveling exhibit.Of course this is a fraction of what was on the tour and while less than half of what is included on these six pages makes its way into "Baseball as America" just looking over the list can be fun.The tour, of course, is long over, but if you have never been to Cooperstown, or if it has been a while since you have been to the Baseball Hall of Fame, then be forewarned because this book will make you want to go and visit all of the baseball treasures on display.

Excellent history of Baseball - but a tad bit dry
This book is an excellent companion piece to the Baseball as American travelling exhibit (www.....org). The pictures included (like any National Geographic piece) are first rate. The included stories are from a diverse group, from sportswriters to former players. However, that's where the book takes a bad turn. The articles are inconsistent in style and quality, and for anyone who enjoys baseball, it's painful to read. This book is required for anyone who loves the game, but I wouldn't recommend it to casual fans.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game
From the eye catching cover to the inspired essays and beautiful photographs inside, this book is a delight. All that was missing was the hot dog and beer. A great gift for fellow baseball fanatics! Go White Sox!

It's A Great Book ...
Book is very nicely presented with many great illustrations, pictures, and excerpts from notable authors. Great book for the casual or diehard baseball fan.This book covers the terrific exhibit now showing at New York City's Museum of American History.Check it out.It's very worthwhile. ... Read more

Book Description
Sweet Auburn
An Illustrated Guide to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Park Site and Auburn Avenue Historic District
Edited by Carol Ash
There are many famous streets in Atlanta-most bear the word "peachtree" somewhere in their name-but few have a history and significance as rich as that of Auburn Avenue. From a blossoming of African-American commerce, education, and arts in the early twentieth century, to witnessing an ever-changing struggle with the onset of Jim Crow and the race riots of 1906, to the destruction of the Great Fire of 1917, to celebrating the hope and success of Martin Luther King Jr., Auburn Avenue has seen it all and continues to be a center of culture and commerce in Atlanta, and indeed, the South. In the 1920s, Auburn Avenue, with over one hundred black-owned businesses, was celebrated internationally as an African American cultural and business center on a par with Harlem and Beale Street in Memphis.
This easy-to-use history and walking guide highlights such landmarks as:
Ebenezer Baptist Church
The King Center for Non-Violent Social Change
The birthplace of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other powerful symbols of African American achievement.
... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
The Travel Historic America series takes travelers back in time with in-depth coverage of historical sights, attractions, and events as well as historic places to stay and eat. It also includes driving tours, overviews, timelines, and a handy resource chapter.Covering both the historical era and geographical region through which Lewis and Clark traveled, this guide shows modern-day discoverers how to retrace the steps of the expedition starting in St. Louis and onward to the Missouri River to the Discovery Passage and down the Columbia River. Includes Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska. ... Read more

Book Description

At the dawn of the 19th century, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on an unprecedented journey from St. Louis, Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and back again. Their assignment was to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and record the geography, flora, fauna, and people they encountered along the way. The tale of their incredible journey, meticulously recorded in their journals, has become an American classic.

Customer Reviews (8)

A classic story best told by those who lived it
This book consists of actual journal entries (with spelling and grammar corrections) and offers interesting insights into the day-to-day rigors of their travels, as well as a unique historical perspective into their journey.Many days were just plain boring- hunted some more, walked some more, saw some more buffalo, etc.- but you really get the feeling of being there.

Best read with maps and additional pictures/illustrations offered in other books in order to get the complete story.Ranked #2 by National Geographic on their list of the Top 100 Adventure Books of all time.I certainly wouldn't rank it that high having read many other books on the list, but it is a must-read nonetheless.

Decent Nat'l. Geo. Book of Lewis & Clark Journals
If you don't enjoy thrashing through the "interesting" spelling found in the original journals, this is the book for you.It's been well "translated" into modern American.Some lengthy portions of the journals are merely summarized, so you really only get a partial picture, but the parts you do get are crystal clear.Well worth the read for the Lewis & Clark fan.

Two Men Who Need No Introduction
You already know who they are and what they did. Now read a day by day account made while on the voyage westward. From relations with the Indians, to the flora and fauna of the virginal American continent, the conduct of the men and the mercurial nature of the weather, this record of the most famous exploration in US history is a must for historians and casual readers alike.

Simply Outstanding
This is an outstanding read made possible by excellent editing and editorial comment.Some have criticized the editor for modernizing and correcting the spelling and even interpreting the notes found in of Lewis and Clark's journals.Frankly I think that this is will make this edition of their journals more accessible to the masses.Their continental crossing and return is one of the greatest stories ever told and thank goodness they documented it so carefully.

The journey and this book have inspired me to make a trip or two next year to see for myself some of the places they saw and documented for the first time only two hundred years ago.Great editorial notation on places, animals, and people to give the modern reader some reference along with beginning chapter notes.Jefferson's amazing directive in its entirety is included.I liked reading it and referencing some good maps so I could vicariously place myself with the expedition.The Corps of Discovery was made up of great American hero's.This riveting journey is a must read for all ages.

This is the book to read!
Brandt's abridgment of these important historical documents will be the one that lasts for years to come.He makes these journals accessible to the everyday historian, who is interested in what the Corps of Discovery actually did, and saves us fromhaving to struggle with quaint and erroneous spelling.

Interestingly, Lewis and Clark themselves never meant the journals to be published just as they wrote them.The editor Brandt has done us a great service by cleaning up the language, making the text flow seamlessly, and leaving out the boring parts.

There are those who will carp over his correction of the spelling (pedants who read Virgil in the original), but the rest of us are grateful. Brandt's talent as a writer shines through the work as he connects the journal sections with elegantly crafted passages. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Robert Stuart, a partner in John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, helped found an ill-fated trading post in Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River. The post fell to disease and hostile attacks, but by then, Stuart had left, heading back east to report to corporate headquarters. In making his way overland across mountains and vast prairies, Stuart blazed what would become the Oregon Trail. His journal, reproduced here, recounts his hardships and observations along the way, and it makes for fascinating reading. In this University of Nebraska Press edition, the noted Western historian Howard Lamar provides an introductory essay that discusses the significance of Stuart's trek to the later settlement of the Pacific Northwest.Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

One of the best books on the West ever published

This book represents a major achievement in the annals of western exploration, and deserves a prominent spot on anyone's American history shelf. In 1810, Robert Stuart, a partner with John Jacob Astor, shipped to the mouth of the Columbia River, where he helped establish Astoria. But troubles at the post with the British during the War of 1812 impelled Stuart with six other men to make an overland winter journey over the Rockies to St. Louis. Throughout the journey Stuart kept a journal, in which he recorded everything encountered along the way: the precise route taken, various Indian tribes, flora and fauna, perspective trapping grounds - and their own personal hardships, which included, near starvation, freezing weather, and hostile Indians. He gave the journal to Astor, who sent it to President James Madison. Stuart then wrote a more formal version of the journey, which was published in France. The original journal made its way back to the Stuart family, where it remained forgotten until it was discovered in a cupboard and finally published in 1935.

This book publishes both the original journal and the French rewrite, known as the "Traveling Memoranda." Both are meticulously edited by Philip Ashton Rollins, which is the key that makes this edition not only definitive but a masterwork. With Rollin's notes it's possible to follow Stuart's route precisely. He is especially detailed where the men crossed South Pass, the first known whites to do so, though their "discovery" would go unrecognized (Jedediah Smith is credited with making the first "recorded" crossing of the Pass in 1824.) In addition to these works, there is a 70-page Forward that summarizes events and puts the Narratives into perspective and a detailed Biographical Note on Stuart's family history.

The book indeed is a major accomplishment. Anyone interested in the early exploration of the West must read this book. Highly recommended.

An epic adventure of extraordinary proportions
This is an excellent first hand account of the original discovery of what was to be the Oregon Trail (in reverse).Robert Stuart originally left New York on the ship the Tonquin, funded by John Jacob Astor, and sailed around the tip of South America and then eventually up to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon to establish a trading post.Stuart then proceeded to head back eastto report to Astor about the state of affairs of the trading fort.With only a handful of men, they went by canoe, horseback and mostly by foot, from the mouth of the Columbia to St. Louis, then eventually to New York.This historical narrative is beyond words.They faced the hardships of hunger, fatigue, Indians, weather, and about everything else one can think of.It is truly a fascinating portrayal of day to day survival in the 1812 wilderness written from the hand of the man who was there.What I also enjoyed about the book was the Appendix on Wilson Price Hunt who, also working for Astor, took an expedition by land from St. Louis to Oregon at about the same time. His written account is also mind-blowing and puts the whole book into perspective. There is also an excellent forward by Rollins which gives you a background on what you are about to read.

Courage and Determination
Robert Stuart, a partner of John Jacob Astor, was sent by ship to Oregon on company business, and returned cross country by horseback, canoe and foot.Along the way he kept a journal, written in berry juice, which isreprinted here.Washington Irving also wrote "Astoria" based onthis journal.

Our whole country should be grateful to Robert Stuart forhis discovery of the Oregon Trail and his courage against unbelievable oddsin making such a tortuous journey. This book was first printed in 1935 andthe original copies are scarce and valuable.So I was thrilled to discoverthat Amazon not only sold it but that it was now in paperback!When theword gets around to the rest of his descendants, we will have this book onthe best seller list, where it belongs. So take that, Lewis & Clark! ... Read more

Amazon.com
In his preface, Stephen E. Ambrose describes the expedition of Lewis and Clark across the North American continent and back (from May 1804 to December 1806) as "the greatest camping trip of all time, and the greatest hunting trip. And one of the greatest scientific expeditions ever."It's a trip that Ambrose and his family often emulate, camping in the same lands the expedition first encountered nearly two centuries before them. In 1997, he was accompanied by National Geographic photographer Sam Abell. Some of these stunning pictures lead off the account of the journey presented here, and then pepper the second half of the book, which is also filled with period illustrations and maps. Ambrose has told the story of Lewis and Clark before, in the bestsellingUndaunted Courage; the version he tells in Voyage of Discovery is shorter, but is also filled with his own contemporary reflections upon the men and the lands they traveled. This coffee-table book will delight lovers of history and nature alike, and may well inspire you to pack up your gear and hit the trail.Book Description

Lewis & Clark

Probably no one knows more about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark than bestselling author and historian Stephen Ambrose, and Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery reflects his superb command of -- and deep affection for -- this epic American journey.

Highlighted by Sam Abell's stunning photographs, this engrossing historical narrative interweaves choice entries from the explorers' journals with the author's own latter-day chronicle of how he and his family continue to discover the Trail today.

Here is the whole extraordinary saga, from its visionary spark in Thomas Jefferson's mind to the expedition itself, with its hardships and adventures. Ambrose's own observations offer a modern look at the land and those who live in it, including the Native American descendants of the tribes who stood between Lewis and Clark and the Pacific Ocean.

Superlative history, breathtaking photography, and an epic tale of exploration, endurance, and enterprise -- the classic ingredients that readers everywhere have come to expect from National Geographic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Lewis and Clark: Voyage of Discovery
This was so interesting and beautifully filmed.I learned alot from it. Jeri Hartman

A good overall Lewis & Clark Book
Good photos, although I would have liked to have seen more that were site-specific and tied directly to the text.Ambrose writes well, as usual.Very enjoyable read.

Very good in some ways, very Stephen Ambrose in some ways
The historical account is great for the most part, but I have two complaints.

The first is that, as one other reviewer notes, Ambrose injects himself and his family too much into the narrative. Jumping from past to present is bad enough if not necessary, but doing so for "look at me" reasons is worse.

Then again, it is Stephen Ambrose, and it's not totally surprising.

The book does also have some degree of the "American triumphalism" view of history that's par from him.

And, the treatment of the various Indian tribes in the context of their times, while decent, was nothing fantastic.

The pictures are indeed great. Of course, you can find many of the same from other great photographers, or from other National Geographic books.

Awesome man
This is like the Journey of Lewis and clark man. It is totally cool. The author tells about their journey as he himself moves along their path. There are totally cool pictures of western america, The book is totally awesome dude!!

Ambrose's work incredible
Ambrose has created a new genre of historical writing; instead of simply retelling the events, he gets down deep into the heart of the matter for a complete understanding. In this book, he compares the original journey of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery to his own vacations with his family along the Lewis and Clark Trail that offer an interesting modern perspective on one of the most important events in American history. The story is full of amazing facts regarding the surrounding land, weather conditions, wildlife, the people on the expedition, and the people encountered along the way; all intersting details that are never mentioned in any history class.

The voyage is not merely told from an historical standpoint of a chain of events, for it also describes the trip from a human perspective, allowing any reader to feel as though they have become a part of the excusion themselves. Even the most minor players are described at some point or another, and Ambrose provides many details about the every day trials of such a trip, especially through the frequent inclusion of the valuable journal entries from the trip's two commanders, Lewis and Clark themselves. Ambrose goes so far as to proclaims their journals as "America's epic poem."

This story is truly a testament to the unshakable American character, and Ambrose has done much to encourage its revival. I would recommend it to any history buff or any patriotic American. Combined with stunning photographs from National Geographic photographer Sam Abell, this book teaches a history lesson that cannot be beaten. ... Read more

Book Description
It has been 200 years since their epic trek across Western America, yet Lewis and Clark still evoke strong emotions. For good or ill, the captains redefined America's sense of identity, and interest is at an all-time high in reexamining their expedition and its effects. Timed for publication amid the four-year bicentennial celebration of their journey, this book retraces the path taken by Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery from 1804 to 1806 and offers an uprecedented examination of the trail both as the explorers saw it and as it exists today. The author draw on the explorers' journals and period illustrations for historical context, and he complements this material with modern color photography from the roads and rivers along the trail blazed by Lewis Clark. Readers will also hear from history enthusiasts who are enamored by the explorers' feats as well as from those who view Lewis Clark as villains. ... Read more

Book Description

America's last best place

The West Boulder valley lies nestled in the Montana Rockies, and when acclaimed travel writer John Heminway first laid eyes on the dilapidated Bar 20 Ranch he knew he was home. "Any sensible person would have walked away," he writes, "but for me the Bar 20 was perfection." In this eloquent book, at once a personal memoir and a vivid portrait of a classic American landscape, its people, and its history, he summons the frontier spirit that still draws men and women to the remote corners of our country where the Old West still flourishes in a unique mix of fierce independence and neighborly welcome. With a sure sense of place, Heminway evokes this spectacular wilderness and the colorful characters who have callled it home, from the trappers and prospectors who haunted the Montana hills more than a century ago to the modern ranchers who are their heirs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Reprehensible
John Heminway's hippie-commune-turned-subdivision is an environmental and community tragedy, but he and his trust fund find it a paradise. This book is instructive for its unintentional exposition of the hypocrisy, condescension, and self-absorbtion that the super-rich bring to "their" Montana. But if you know anything about the state, it's truly painful to read.

Not just in need of the most basic proofreader, the book contains dozens of factual errors. (I was particularly surprised that National Geographic would place the Missouri River in Fargo.) Not only does Heminway blandly repeat the same old stories, but in getting them wrong (not only does he botch the story of Charlie Russell's painting "Waiting for a Chinook," he even inflates its alternate title from "Last of the 5,000" to "Last of the 10,000") he does a tremendous disservice to anyone who would find this representative of Montana.

Avoid this book! If you want to read about this region, read Mark Spragg's "Where Rivers Change Direction" -- not only a more accurate book, but a truly eloquent memoir.

Montanamania
"Yonder" (subtitled "A Place in Montana") by John Hemingway is an untidy book, but one I still recommend to readers interested in the west. Hemingway is an expert on Africa, a producer of documentary films for PBS, a writer, and a Montana "hobby rancher". Noel Perrin used the phrase "hobby farmer" to identify people who buy farms in Vermont in order to feel connected with the soil and the hardy Yankee yoemen who till it, but who continue to derive most of their income from some other source. The book relates Hemingway's experiences after he and members of his family purchase first a ranch in central Montana and then a 36-acre mountain retreat, named the Bar 20, north of Yellowstone Park. He interweaves events and observations from his own life in Montana with his search for information about the previous owners of the Bar 20.

One of the pleasures of the book is Hemingway's gift for vivid word snapshots of people he encounters in Montana. His filmaker's eye rests briefly on organic rancher Tom Elliott, BLM archeologist Michael Kyte, outfitter Larry Lahren, horse whisperer Ray Hunt, ranch foreman Floyd Cowles, teepee manufacturer Don Ellis, and his motley neighbors in the Boulder River valley. The sketches are illuminations of ordinary lives rather than (a la Annie Proulx) a lepidopterological display of "characters". The book's other strength is the mini-biography of Stanley and Bab Cox, easterners like Hemingway, who owned the Bar 20 from 1933 to 1951 and who, unlike Hemingway, resided there continuously except for the war years. Hemingway's determined and ingenious research has unearthed a story worthy of a novel.

"Yonder", published by the National Geographic Society Adventure Press, is the worst-edited book I have encountered in some time. It is rife with typos: missing quotation marks, uncapitalized proper names, "souh" for "south", "there's" for "theirs", "Yate's" for "Yates'", "shooting match" for "shouting match", and a missing negative that turns a sentence about organic farming into nonsense. It is also guilty of dubious or incorrect word usage. Examples: three sheets of paper become in the next paragraph three sheaves of paper; a hinged bookcase hiding a door is called "trompe l'oeil". And what is one to make of this sentence? "While grounds for abandoning a six-year-old child seem inconceivable, we can speculate he justified his decision because, perhaps, he felt rejected by the Hydes, who clearly had never warmed to a man they regarded as a diffident provider, husband, and father."

Hemingway grafts a couple of self-contained essays (previously published articles?) onto the stalk of his narrative. They deal with native American activities in other parts of the state and artist Winold Reiss. These are interesting in their own right, but anti-climatictic after the drama of the Cox research.

"Yonder" will save future owners of the Bar 20 the trouble of playing detective in order to find out what John Hemingway was doing and thinking during his days in Montana.

A story of finding that which is "yonder"...
I loved Yonder. It is thestory of John Heminway'ssearch to uncover the history of a ranch in a beautiful Montana valley. John and his sister, Hilary, bought the ranch soon after they had found it with the help of a knowledgeable agent. As Yonder unfolds I fell under its enchantment and could not put it down until I found out what John had discovered through his searchfor its past owners. However, Yonder is more than apaean to Montana as moving as Ivan Doig's This House of Skyor Rick Bass's Seven Mile Wolves.It is also the story of the author's search for peace and joy.This is heartfelt book should fascinate those who enjoy interesting people and unique places. ... Read more

Book Description
Whether you travel for business, pleasure, or a combination of the two, the ever-popular "Culture Shock!" series belongs in your backpack or briefcase. Get the nuts-and-bolts information you need to survive and thrive wherever you go. "Culture Shock!" country guides are easy-to-read, accurate, and entertaining crash courses in local customs and etiquette. "Culture Shock!" practical guides offer the inside information you need whether you're a student, a parent, a globetrotter, or a working traveler. "Culture Shock!" at your Door guides equip you for daily life in some of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. And "Culture Shock!" Success Secrets guides offer relevant, practical information with the real-life insights and cultural know-how that can make the difference between business success and failure.

Each "Culture Shock!" title is written by someone who's lived and worked in the country, and each book is packed with practical, accurate, and enjoyable information to help you find your way and feel at home. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A definitive, whimsical, and informed look into California.
Unlike average travel guides that list tourist traps in a droning disinterested voice, the author imbues California with life using a charming, very witty writing style. Simply put, he brings California tolife for the reader. The guide he provides is unique and thoroughlyenjoyable. The photographs selected are great in capturing the beauty ofthe state. I would recommend this book for anyone looking to exploreCalifornia or just intersted in travelling through the written word. ... Read more

Book Description

What was it like to be a pilgrim child in 17th-century Massachusetts? This charming picture book takes young readers back in time to see. For one thing, pilgrim children didn't go to school. Instead, they helped their parents with chores and played games such as marbles. There were no convenient grocery stores. Pilgrims had to hunt and gather food, then cook their meals on an open fire or in an outdoor oven. Dramatic photos of historical reenactments combine with lively text to give today's children a vivid sense of daily life in Plymouth colony. Here is a great book for fostering an early interest in history!

Customer Reviews (1)

Good place to start
I use this book in my second grade class to introduce Thanksgiving and our study of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people.The book is published by National Geographic and has stunning photographs taken at the Plimouth Living History Museum.It has simple text (great for 1-3) and gives a nice overview of pilgrim life.My students find this book fascinating... they're intrigued by the pictures and descriptions of a life so different from theirs.One caveat: if you're looking for a book about the "First Thanksgiving" this is not it.Its primary focus is on everyday pilgrim life.Try 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, instead. ... Read more

Book Description
When the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 added a vast and unmapped wilderness area to the fledgling United States, President Thomas Jefferson persuaded Congress to fund a "Corps of Discovery" to explore these lands, and he picked a young man by the name of Meriwether Lewis to lead the way. Lewis and his co-command, Captain William Clark, kept journals of the expedition, and what they found amazed the world: three hundred new species of plants and animals, as well as wilderness prairie and mountains previously undescribed.
This book is the first guide to contemporary recreational adventures along the route of America's most famous pioneer expedition. It includes abundant natural history, as well as profiles of the many state and national parks to be found in Lewis and Clark country. Author Elizabeth Grossman divides the trail into six sections and recommends ten "explorations" in each, along with many side trips. She offers suggestions for the best day hiking, backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, biking, and wildlife viewing--as well as short, easy walks and car trips to interpretive centers, Native American villages, and scenic vistas. Information on the Corps of Discovery's original campsites is also included, along with excerpts from Lewis and Clark's journals. Though much of the wild lands described in the journals is now gone, travelers can still recognize some of the terrain from these two hundred-year-old descriptions.
The present-day adventurer along the Lewis and Clark Trail will doubtless feel a powerful connection with the remaining natural glories that bridge the time from then to now, and will appreciate the opportunity to see this land through the lens of its dramatic history. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In 1997 Yellowstone celebrated its 125th anniversary as a national park, the keystone in the federal system of reserved and protected places. The celebration was somewhat marred by debates over wolf reintroduction, road improvement, resort building, and "bioprospecting," the search for economically useful plant materials. Paul Schullery, a longtime resident and student of the park, tells us that such debates are not new. In his deeply personal yet sweeping history of Yellowstone, he shows that the place known from the start as "Wonderland" has always been the subject of pro- and anti-development forces, has always been seen through sometimes bitterly contrasting points of view. With balance and grace, Schullery weaves his narrative through countless such arguments, noting that "Today's parks, for all the press of humanity lined up to get in, still seem short of friends, or at least lacking in just the right combination of friends to ensure adequate budgets and reasonable protection." His fine book may help widen Yellowstone's circle of champions.Book Description
Combining exhaustive research with twenty-five years of experience at Yellowstone, Paul Schullery paints a dramatically new picture of Yellowstone park. He shows how Yellowstone's "discovery" by whites followed 10,000 years of occupation and use by native Americans. The search for Yellowstone is as vital and unpredictable today as it was in 1872, and Paul Schullery makes an urgent, eloquent, and startlingly practical case for ensuring that Yellowstone lasts another 125 years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A balanced history and a wonderful read
This book presents itself as a history of Yellowstone.However, it's also an extended reflection on the park by someone who loves it dearly, someone who has worked for the National Park Service in Yellowstone for years and is very knowledgeable about the park.Schullery writes very well, and the book is a pleasure to read.

The most striking characteristic of this book, in comparison with others, is how remarkably even-handed it is.Schullery takes controversial issues such as fire management, elk shooting, wolf reintroduction, and brucellosis-infected bison and presents them in an even-handed way, sympathetic to both sides.He recognizes that most people go to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon, eat, and go shopping; that's not what he likes to do, but he isn't critical.Yet, somehow, he manages to cock an eyebrow here and there and make you rethink a position that you had previously held quite firmly.

This would be a great book to read before a visit to Yellowstone, or as something to put in your pack while you're there.Highly recommended.

Readers with affection for Yellowstone will find these early encounters riveting.
Combine history, scholarship, and a survey of nature and ecological issues and you have an uncommon history of Yellowstone that examines the political and cultural influences on the park's development and management over the decades. SEARCHING FOR YELLOWSTONE: ECOLOGY AND WONDER IN THE LAST WILDERNESS offers up chapters packed with true stories of environmental encounters and wonders. Readers with affection for Yellowstone will find these early encounters riveting.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Searching for Yellowstone
This is a review of Yellowstone history from a system-wide and ecological perspective.It is well written and provides a great deal of factual information.It presents well thought out conclusions.It is balanced; not overly slanted toward the National Park Service, but not overly critical.The book is extremely well researched.The stories of historical characters and events add much to the book.The universe of Yellowstone experts hold several differing views on the proper wildlife numbers that should be allowed in Yellowstone.Schullery fits into the group that favors using historical stocking as a baseline.Those inclined to an agronomy baseline will question some of the conclusions drawn.One of the other reviewers called this book an "easy pre-read."I disagree; it is not difficult to read, but it does deserve study.

Yellowstone 101
`Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in knowing the "Yellowstone story" at a deeper level than the interpretive signs or tourist pamphlets.This would be excellent (and easy) "pre-reading" for anyone contemplating a first trip to Yellowstone....but it is also a fascinating and sometimes surprising eye-opener for someone (like me) who was somewhat familiar with Yellowstone already.From the perspective only a former Yellowstone employee and prolific writer/researcher could bring, Schullery persuasively argues-not unlike the "new western historians" in their iconoclastic reassessment of the American west and its history)-that Yellowstone is not so much a place as a process...a process of how we as Americans define a national park.Schullery's measured tour through this process provides a sobering reminder to inveterate tree-huggers like me that a national park is not a wilderness area, as much as I might like it to be in terms of "hands off" preservation.Schullery's approach is matter-of-fact, methodically researched (I actually enjoyed reading the copious "notes" section separately after having finished the book) and myth-busting at times (e.g. that surprisingly, the total number of developed acres in Yellowstone has actually decreased during the last 40 years rather than increased).He doesn't even spare himself, needling enthusiastic fly-fishers like himself with the sad-but-true fact that if we treated the ungulates of Yellowstone the same way fishermen do a Yellowstone trout (which was probably introduced in the first place rather than native), we would be cited for abusing the wildlife.A very readable and important book.

Best book about Yellowstone NP so far
I read this book in a week and was quite impressed with the breadth of history covered in 260 something pages, not counting notes.I was glad to see that this historical account began with an "anthropological" perspective by recounting the known presence of Native American tribes prior to the EuroAmerican "discovery" of the place and the manner in which they were extricated from the ecosystem.I was also impressed with the historical information relating the misuse, management practices and policies that affected the life of the park once it was established and what changes have been implemented in recent years. The notes following the text were very helpful in leading me to other books and records that I would like to examine.A fine book that I purchased after reading the library copy! ... Read more

Book Description

Abenaki Joseph Bruchac and Navajo Shonto Begay combine their talents to tell the tragic story of how, in the 1860s, U.S. soldiers forced thousands of Navajos to march to a desolate reservation 400 miles from their homeland in an effort to “civilize” them. Hundreds died along the way; those who survived found unspeakable living conditions at their destination. When word of the Indians's plight finally gained public attention, President Andrew Johnson sent a Peace Commission to investigate. The resulting treaty allowed the Navajos to return to their homeland, and ho'zho—harmony—was restored. The Navajos prospered and have lived in peace with the U.S. government ever since while preserving their own proud culture.

Customer Reviews (2)

Navajo Long Walk : Tragic Story Of A Proud Peoples Forced March From Homeland
Excellent Research Book.Help make clearer how them like other tribes had to leave there homeland and travel someplace else.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a nations struggle for survival.

Thayer's book review
Navajo Long Walk is an exciting book about an Indian family who is forced to go to camps and live the white sholdiers' way. The main characters are Kee, Hasba, Gentle Woman, the mother, Strong Man, the father, and Wise One, the grandfather. This family, like all the other Navajo families, have to move to different for-away camps that are called forts. Some of the forts they go to are Fort Defiance and Fort Summer.

Kee learns that you can be friends with white soldiers like when he neets a white soldier, his horse and his son.

The reader will enjoy this book becasue it is very detailed and you can picture every word in your mind. You will have a great experience reading about the Navajo way of life. ... Read more