Arizona Books

There is nothing I can say that would do any justice as to how great this book is. It was everything you could possibly hope for in an ethnographic text. You learn a lot about a culture very different from ours and it is truly just fascinating!

What do people make of places? Basso's opening sentence is a good example of what the Apache call `letting one's mind have room'. As we read through the chapters of the book Basso continues to add layers to the meaning of this opening question. It allows us to reflect on various uses of the word `make'. We make sense of places by interpreting them. We make places intelligible by foregrounding them. We make use of places; as sign posts or land-marks through the use of descriptive naming. We make places or constitute them as sites or repositories of learning; we invest them as placeholders for morality tales or homilies. We make places vital; we invest them with agency, we enchant them, animate them, in the spirit of golems; we take a piece of earth and through magic or metaphysics we bring it alive, giving it a mission and a life of its own.

Wisdom sits in places. The Apache are a good example of virtue ethics. This is a theory of ethics, usually based on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which argues against an ethical universalism and in favor of a particularism. It foregoes the quest for nomothetic foundations and looks instead to the development of certain skills or character traits. Aristotle created a catalogue of areas of behavior or traits with a continuum of possible dispositions. The virtuous behavior was the means between the two extremes of each continuum. Thus the virtue of bravery was somewhere in the range between cowardice and foolhardiness or irrational voluntarism in the face of impossible odds or a meaningless risk.
Aristotle's concept of phronesis finds an interesting parallel in the Apache moral imagination. Phronesis is a meta-virtue; it is the ability to choose the right action for each particular event; the ability to find the virtuous means between vicious poles. It is the essential skill for particularism which is the theory that the right action, the correct moral choice is particular to each unique event. It is opposed to the universalist proposition that there are sets of moral propositions or codes that we can apply in a covering law model. Universalism holds that when two of our moral codes clash we resolve the dilemma by applying a meta-rule, most commonly a deontological (Kantian) or utilitarian proposition.
The Apache's sense of wisdom is a good example of a pragmatic ethics informed by a set of virtues that are learned and continually developed throughout their life's journey. In the first chapter we note how each speaker brings the homily (the moral lesson associated with a place name) forward, making it their own, fleshing it out. One imagines that each speaker and hearer of place names is expected to silently immerse themselves in each homily; making it real by seeing it happen. The act of giving vision to the oral narrative is a process of developing layers upon layers of particular exemplars of the lesson. It is thus internalized and carried forward for the next use. As one gains wisdom one becomes more proficient at seeing when and where to apply these lessons.
This is similar to the thought of the American pragmatist and logician, C. S. Peirce, who proposed a fallibilism about knowledge, truth, and scientific results. He felt that we were always discovering more and that a full statement of any putative universal law was always deferred. Peirce's original pragmatism differed from what James and Dewey later made of it. For Peirce we expanded our sense of a truth through a process of discovering layers upon layers of particular applications and gradually gaining more of an understanding of the wider truth. But his sense of fallibilism posited rich moral concepts such as justice or duty as essentially contested concepts.

We have maps in our heads. There are other interesting parallels with the ancient Greeks besides virtue ethics. There is a significant body of study regarding Plato's thought on the spoken and written word. Plato argued that reality resides in absolute and eternal forms. Thus the impressions available to our senses are imitations that is but a shadow of these eternal truths; they confuse us and should not be trusted. Worse still are the imitations of imitations; thus his polemics against poetry, art, and the written word. It would be interesting to combine this with the study of texts in the 20th century to look at the Apache's preference for maps in the head. Barthes, Derrida and others all expanded our notion of what can serve as texts and it might be interesting to look at Apache use of places through some of those lenses.
In addition there are interesting parallels with the sophists. Although Plato and Socrates succeeded in creating our contemporary disdain for sophism, recent work in the study of Isocrates and others brings a new appreciation of certain tenets of sophism. The sophists exhibited some similarities to the Apache notions of epistemology. They both saw the elders and ancestors as the source of wisdom and warrants for knowledge to be used for current problems. They both argued that the knowledge of the past resided less in universal laws than in practices of the ancestors; actual responses to past dilemmas that are best accessed through interpretation rather than a rote use of the covering law model or a slavish rehearsal of rigid and dogmatic rituals.
They both thought that knowledge (as justified true belief) was discovered and ultimately ratified and warranted by the voice of the majority; the interpretation that found the most general favor. The sophists proposed that vigorous debate in an open forum of citizens is the most epistemologically sound form of inquiry. Their best speakers would take both sides on various propositions of what the ancestors would have done in the current crisis. The goal was to make the best possible argument for all options and let the citizenry decide.
Both the ancient Greeks and the Apache continued to observe religious rituals but it would also be interesting to compare characteristics of their religious cosmology, the role of the gods, and their associations with natural entities and nature in general.

This book was mediocre at best. Although Keith Basso did provide some insight into why the Apache people cherish their land, I felt that Basso kept on saying the exact same thing in every sentence. I had the point of the entire book by the time I was ten pages into it, and it kept on going, therefore making me lose my concentration on what I was reading.

Anthropologists, language students, and Native American culture afficionados will find this book, and any by Keith Basso, written links into a cultural past which struggles to exist today. As the Western Apache tribes become more modern, the information found in this and other Keith Basso writings, become necessities in the preservation of traditional Apache culture; with the exception of the knowledge of a few hundred very traditional Apaches still living in Arizona.

What do people make of places? This is the central question examined by Keith Basso in his ethno-linguistic study of the relationship between language and landscape among the Apaches of Cibecue, on the Fort Apache Reservation in central Arizona. Basso, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, has spent over 30 years conducting field work among the Western Apaches. His publications concerning this group include articles on language, patterns of silence in social interaction, witchcraft beliefs, and ceremonial symbolism, among others. The idea for Wisdom Sits in Places stemmed from a study conducted between 1979 and 1984, in which Basso, with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation and the guidance of the Apaches, conducted a study of Apache places and place-names; how the Apache refer to their land, the stories behind the place-names, and how these place-names are used in daily conversation by Apache men and women. The result is a stunningly informative account of the use of landscape and language in the social interactions of the Western Apaches.
Basso divides his book into four sections: Quoting the Ancestors, Stalking with Stories, Speaking with Names, and Wisdom Sits in Places. Each chapter's focus is to examine how landscape and language serve distinct purposes in Western Apache society. Basso incorporates the oral history of, and discussions with, local Apaches, as well as his formal training as an ethnographer-linguist, to explain the underlying themes of this book.
First, Basso introduces the reader to the idea of place-names and in the Western Apache construction of history. As conceived by the Apaches, the past is a "well-worn `path' or `trail' which was traveled first by the people's founding ancestors and which subsequent generations of Apaches have traveled ever since" (31). The ancestors gave names to places, based on events that occurred there. Regardless of the physical changes in the landscape that occurred over time, the story of what took place, as well as the place-name, was passed down through generations and serves as a connection between the people and their ancestors.
Second, Basso examines how the language and the land are "manipulated by Apaches to promote compliance with standards for acceptable social behavior and the moral values which support them" (41). The historical tales of place-names are without exception morality tales, intended to influence patterns of social action. Their purpose is to serve as warnings, criticisms, and enlightenment for those who are behaving improperly; not in accordance with the Apache way of life. The telling of a historical tale is "intended as a critical and remedial response" to an individual's having committed one or more social offenses. Apaches contend that if the message is taken to heart, a lasting bond will have been created between that individual and the site at which the events in the tale took place. In short, the land, accompanied with its historical tale, "makes the people live right" (61).
Third, through the act of "speaking with names", place-names can be condensed "into compact form their essential moral truths" (101). "Speaking with names" is considered appropriate only under certain circumstances, generally to enable those who engage in it "to acknowledge a regrettable circumstance without explicitly judging it, to exhibit solicitude without openly proclaiming it, and to offer advice without appearing to do so" (91). Evoking images of a particular place and narrative thus replaces a more direct form of advice or criticism, with "a minimum of linguistic means" (103).
Finally, with the guidance of his Apache friend, Dudley Patterson, Basso examines the path of wisdom in Western Apache society. Patterson explains there are two mental conditions, "steadiness of mind", and "resilience of mind", which lead to a third and most desirable condition, smoothness of mind. These three conditions are not innate; therefore, one must work on one's mind in order to gain wisdom. To work on one's mind, "one must observe different places, learn their Apache place-names, and reflect on traditional narratives that underscore the virtues of wisdom" (134). A resilient mind, according to Patterson, does not "give in to panic or fall prey to spasms of anxiety or succumb to spells of crippling worry" (132). A steady mind is "unhampered by feelings of arrogance or pride, anger or vindictiveness, jealously or lust" (133). Steadiness and resilience give way to a sense of "cleared space" or "area free of obstruction", conditions necessary for smoothness of mind. Only those who continue on the trail of wisdom their whole lives come closest to having a smooth mind, and are "able to foresee disaster, fend off misfortune, and avoid explosive conflicts with other persons" (131). Thus, wisdom is intertwined with the idea of survival through the consistent and thoughtful evocation of landscape and language.
Keith Basso and the Western Apaches of Cibecue have provided readers with an insightful and provocative account of the connection between language, land, and a people's cultural history. Wisdom Sits in Places opens the door for future research on place-names by shedding light on a previously overshadowed topic in anthropological studies. Basso's dissection of certain stories and social interactions can be overwhelming and a bit dry, but his purpose is made clear when his examinations are added together with the Apache narratives. What results is a clear picture of what language and landscape mean to the Western Apaches, the functional versatility of place-names, and the importance of being aware of one's sense of place.

This is my third copy of the Cosmic Ray book; the other copies have been "borrowed" and not returned. The maps are amusing, and it fits into a jacket pocket pretty easy...Good book if you like a cartoon type picture.

I have both hiking books--Best of Phoenix and Best of Flagstaff/Sedona. In fact, I am on my second copy of both as I have lent my first Phoenix copy to a friend (it disappeared) and wore out the first copy of my the Flagstaff/Sedona book. The maps are easy to follow and the topographical maps are awesome. Whenever I go hiking, I have two little girls (ages 1 and 4) in tow, so it is necessary to know the terrain inside and out before ever leaving home... Cosmic Ray is so detailed and so accurate that I never worry about being misinformed. Buy a copy for yourself and buy one for a friend... That way yours won't go missing!

Just got back from Arizona- and we used this book extensively as it was easy to read, the maps accurate, and the book is quite entertaining. My 6 year old son stated that the Lava River Cave trail "changed his life" (in a good way). The trail trips turned out to be the highlight of our trip!! The authors advise is excellent and the designation of level of difficulty is on target.

This is it...look no further...

Trail maps and information as well as local business area beta....covers all the well-known hikes and even some of the lesser known...

A must hiking guide for Northern Arizona.

Both Sedona and Flagstaff are covered....the book is stout and put together very well; this sturdiness provides needed protection in your pack!!

As a transplanted Montanan, I don't trust much advice on hiking in Arizona. I thank you for the Favorite Hikes book. I used to hike in the Glacier and Bozeman area but have been out of the action for a few years since moving to Flagstaff and having a baby. I have found this guide to be accurate and reliable when planning hikes with my son and/or dog. Thanks again. Buying this book is the best 10 bucks I ever spent.

REALLY, REALLY liked this book. There are 52 chapters with 52 great weeknd adventures. This is a perfect book for someone new to Arizona like me, but I'm sure locals will get some good use out of it too. The maps and all the extra information are really useful. The color photos are spectacular. Much, much better than other Arizona guides out there.

The authors do a really good job of motivating readers like me to get off the couch and try something new. After I bought the book, our first weekend escape was when I took my wife hot air ballooning in Sedona. Then about a month later, my wife and I contacted one of the outfitters listed in the Grand Canyon hiking chapter, and we took a long weekend 4-day hiking trip down to Havasupai. When we got there, we couldn't believe we're still in Arizona with the beautiful waterfalls and all the incredible scenery. Plus we saved about $$$ thanks to one of the coupons in the back of the book -- this coupon alone paid for the book and then some. Thanks! (Great idea! I figured the least I could do was write a thorough review.)

I'm looking forward to the winter so we can go try a weekend of dogsledding... Who would have thought dogsledding in Arizona! Thanks a lot guys. Great book!

Great book. Tons of amazing pictures that inspire me to get off the couch and get outdoors. I lived in Phoenix for 3 years and never knew that all of these awesome adventures were right at my doorstep. Writing is informative and entertaining. I would highly recommend this book.

This book is great for anyone who lives in Arizona and is looking for some exciting things to do on weekends. The book is set up by season and the degree of difficulty for each adventure, so there is something for everyone. The pictures are beautiful and the directions are really great. If you are going to visit Arizona and would like to try some different activities this book is for you.

I really liked the book alot! It's pretty hard not to come up with something to do when you have 52 options. We've had the book for just over a month and and when we bought it, we decided to go have some fun this year.

First, we went Paragliding on Lake Pleasant and had a blast! Plus saved money from the included coupon. Then last weekend we hiked Peralta Canyon. It's amazing what's out there.

This book is the ultimate guide. You are not an Arizonan unless you have experienced its glory, and this book will get you there. I moved here from New Mexico and now feel more at home than the few natives I know. I can get out every weekend and enjoy my life, and it's not expensive. In addition I can save with the coupons.
Recommend: Go try the Parasailing and the Hummer Tour! (Coupons!)

Nice detailed reference on the battleship Arizona. Detailed history. Very useful collection of pictures. Great reference for modelers.

When the pacage arrived from Amazon, I did realise that it would be such a big book just on one Battleship! The detail for any history buff, model maker is great. A good purchase but you will need a reading table to hold it!

Mr. Stillwell has brought BB-39 to life in a way that hasn't been matched by anyone else who has attempted. His rendering of the life of the ship from her birth in the NY Navy yards to her death in the waters of Pearl Harbor is amazing in its clarity & detail.

OK, some detail might be lacking for the technical buffs but his description of the construction, manning, & day-to-day operation of a US naval vessel in the 1st half of the 20th century is superlative. He blends both the hardware & the human element so that Arizona & her crew leap off the pages as a living, breathing combination of steel & flesh.

Highly recommended for those who are interested in the Arizona herself & for anyone who would like to know many of the hows & whys of US Naval operations between the wars.

PS: Scale modelers invariably recommend "Battleship Arizona" as -the- definitive work to those who are researching details of BB-39 for their own modeling projects.

IN A NUTSHELL: AN ILLUSTRATED READER THAT INCLUDES TECHNICAL APPENDICES

One could say that the above says it all.

WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: THE LIFE & DEATH OF THE ARIZONA AND HER CREWS

In great detail, this book begins as the ship's keel is laid, [16 MARCH 1914] with a picture of FDR who was on hand as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for the ceremony. It ends with the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Included, after the end of the book, are 5 appendices that include all the information that modelers and naval history enthusiasts will be seeking.

FOR THOSE READERS THAT ARE A LITTLE IMPATIENT - -

The first seven chapters of the book is about the peacetime life aboard one of the U.S. Navy's super-dreadnoughts. It is an interesting and well illustrated historical reader.

This changes abruptly for Chapter 8, "DAY OF INFAMY" which details a basic reconstruction of the morning of December 7, 1941, as it pertains to the Battleship Arizona. Highlighted most of all are the individual acts of heroism and the selflessness of many of the crew in their desperate efforts to save their fellow crewmen, their ship and themselves. Also included is a sketch which illustrates where the damage to the ship occurred, which is a huge aid in understanding what happened so quickly to the Arizona on December 7, 1941. This is short, seemingly all too short, but one must realize that the Arizona's magazines' exploded only about 10 minutes after the attack began. 1177 men of the Arizona's crew were killed in that short time with only 337 survivors, many of whom were on leave so they were not there at the time. In other words, about 85% of the crew on-board were killed in basically ten minutes. Nevertheless, the detail is quite accurate and more importantly, easy to follow and appreciate.

Chapter 9, "AFTERMATH" is pretty gruesome in some places, but this is after all a rather gruesome real life disaster. This chapter does include the attempted salvaging of the Arizona and some stories about the men who remained on board [forever in most cases].

THE APPENDICES: HISTORIAN & MODELERS HEAVEN

- APPENDIX 1 - CHRONOLOGY from 1916 - 1941, 42 pages includes a great deal of day to day missions and events of interest.

- APPENDIX 2 - COMMANDING OFFICERS - DATES INCLUDED

- APPENDIX 3 - CREW LIST - 7 DECEMBER 1941, includes fatalities and survivors separately of both the Navy and Marine Corp. Includes summary at the end.

- APPENDIX 4 - A SAILOR'S LETTERS - SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

- APPENDIX 5 - SHIP'S DATA, include detailed specs with individual breakdown of the weights of different components of the ship [eg. armor, machinery, hull etc.] both originally and after the modernization in 1931.

Within Appendix 5 there are numerous sketches [1:600 scale] which are probably copies of the ships blueprints. These are detailed to show individual compartments and components and are labeled. The alterations that were made to the ship over time have been included. A very important addition.

BOTTOM LINE:

Paul Stillwell and "The Naval Institute Press" have another winner in this volume.

I chose to read The Illustrated History of the Battleship Arizona, written by Paul Stillwell. This is not the first book of this format that he has written The Illustrated History of the Battleship Missouri, follows the same format as well. The book started in the shipyard as the U.S.S. Arizona was being built then the author takes you through the daily routine of the ship as if you were a sailor on the great battleship. You feel as though you're in the middle of Pearl Harbor looking over the Arizona as the battle is taking place. The ship was built in 1918, and was the pride of the Pacific fleet threw out the 20's. The Arizona was featured in a Famous movie called, Here Comes the Navy. After Pearl Harbor the ship was made into a now world famous memorial.

This had been one of the best books I had ever been able to read there is so much information given on this great ship, and the pictures make the ship come alive. I would suggest this book to anyone who has an interest in ships and the way they run, or a fan of history. I have not read any other books that Paul Stillwell has written, but if they are half as good as this one I would recommend it to anyone.

This is one of those books that you just can't wait to turn the page to find out what happens next. You forget you're reading a book! You feel like it's really happening because Conover's writing puts you right there! Sometimes, even good books have their "slow parts," but not this one! Anyone who likes books that really take you there and is written in such a way that you can truly "see" what's happening will not want to miss this one!

I don't usually read Western or Adventure novels, but this one is fantastic. I neglected some chores and rushed through others to get back to it, and stayed awake past my bedtime reading. Don't be intimidated by the number of pages. The font and short chapters allow you to zip along. It's one of those you'll never forget.

I read Greenhorns & Killer Mountains coming home from Mississippi on a bus trip. I was so interested in the story I wouldn't even get off the bus at the rest stops.

As a former resident of Pekin, Illinois, I first heard about Jim Conover's books from a webpage showing different events in our hometown, including a book signing for his books. I decided to read his first book because he was from my hometown. Was I in for a pleasant surprise--it was great! I couldn't wait to read his next book! Normally, I prefer non-fiction books, so when I read that Greenhorns was fiction, I wasn't particularly excited about reading it. Was I in for a shock! After starting the book, I could literally not put it down. What intrigued me the most was the number of characters used and how Mr. Conover was able to weave them throughout the plot and subplots to exciting conclusion. I highly recommend this author and look forward to future books!

Look out Jim Conover is on the scene! This book is fantastic. I absolutely loved. It's a great treasure hunting adventure with characters so colorful you know every one. I couldn't put the book down and when I did I felt like I had stepped out of a movie theatre, not put a book down.If you don't read another book this year, read this one, get to know Clay Morgan and Big Alice and feel as though you've been to the Superstition Mts. in Arizona. This book holds your interest cover to cover. Can't wait for his next book..

This memoir written by the daughter of a woman that had polio and a history of polio is an excellent book. I really felt like I knew the author, her mother and the whole polio experience much better after I read this book.

As a polio survivor myself, I am fascinated by the biographies of others. I am very much reminded of TO CATCH THE SNOWFLAKES, another survivor who did not allow himself to be a victim.

Kathryn Black's journey to understand her mother's struggle with polio is well written and poignant--a definite contribution to appreciating the human condition. This book is worth every penny.

As a daughter of a polio survivor, I found this book to be an excellent resourse. the excellent research and doucumentation of a social and scientific phenomena of this century.

The book was inspirational and taught me a lot about the disease- things I never knew; but when I read the summary for this book, I thought it was going to be a story, not a research paper. Yes, Ms. Black does tell snippets of her mother's story every other chapter, but there is so much nitty gritty info in between- unless you want to know the entire history of the disease, don't buy this book. I did, thinking I would get an in depth view into the life of a family affected by polio, and instead got, for the most part, an essay on the history and effects of polio. Please don't be mislead by the title- it's a good title, but it conveys a personal and intimate sense which is not entirely present in the book itself. I hope my experience with this book helps you in the future.

My Great Aunt Arizona is a beautifully-written, beautifully-illustrated book based on a real person, the author's great aunt Arizona. We loved the book so much we took a family vacation some years ago to see the area. The artist obviously went there and saw Henson Creek and the real places, just as we did. We saw Great Aunt Arizona's grave site, too, and met the author's mother.

We love this book so much we have donated it to a couple of libraries and given it as gifts many times. Top notch!

My Great-Aunt Arizona is an excellent book for children and for anyone who is encouraged by a positive message on education.

Gloria Houston's work is wonderful!

Read this book to your kids because it's a great story. Read it because it'll help them appreciate what their teachers do for them. And then, maybe give a copy to their teacher as a gift. This wonderful book is a tribute to those who pour their lives into children who can then go forward with dreams and the ability to do anything.

I use this book in both my reading and writing workshops for fifth graders. It's an excellent book that could be useful to 3rd-6th grade students. It's a great example of characterization.

By far, one of my favorite books for children. I love reading it to my babies. The text with the beautiful pictures will go with you in your mind forever...

This is a book with the marvelous flavor and texture of the 1880's Arizona Territory--a mix of not only the pleasure of cooking and good food but the ethnic stew of the place and time. The plot: Frieda, the leading character, is a flawed but admirable woman of passionate loyalties and a sense of mission that pushes her on a dangerous and self-sacrificing quest to save her younger sister. The characters are special, with perils aplenty. There is a point at which the book really catches fire and races ahead excitingingly, and I finished it at a gallop. Ms.Rochlin's writing is a gift not only to anyone interested in the Old West as it really was, but to anyone who appreciates the ring of an honest voice in fiction.

I just finished it-sadly-because there were no more pages to turn. It's wonderful. The characters are true-I really cared about them - not so easy to do in some novels. What strength and courage those pioneers had! I don't think that I would have been able to survive such conditions. Also - what deeply impresses me was the love Frieda had for Ida - what sisters should and rarely do, feel for one another.

Harriet Rochlin has given us a gift: three stories about feisty Freida Goldson and her ambitious husband, Benny, as they settle and struggle in Arizona during the 1880s. Readers of Rachel Calof's story by Jacob Calof and the Diary of Mattie Spencer by Sandra Dallas will be equally intrigued by Rochlin's Desert Dwellers Trilogy. On Her Way Home can stand on its own, but to really appreciate Frieda's strength--and Rochlin's achievement-- read The Reformer's Apprentice and The First Lady of Dos Cacahuantes in sequence. The stories are wonderful for book clubs, for readers who like historical fiction, and for anyone who appreciates how much women had to overcome to reach their present equality. Frieda is Jewish so her story reveals little known information about the Jewish experience in the West. Rochlin's research is outstanding.

"On Her Way Home," the third novel in the Desert Dweller's Trilogy, deomonstrates Harriet Rochlin's uncanny ability to enter the hearts and minds of her 1880s characters. A wonderful, rollicking read, the book is as contemporary in its psychological insights as it is historically accurate. I highly recommend this book to all those interested in reading a good story about interesting people living in a vivid, vital slice of time.

This fascinating story gives us a dark view of pioneer life in the form of the criminal justice system and its distructive effect on women who are caught up in it. Women do not count. Unless the woman is Frieda Goldson whose ferocious will takes her far from home to the side of her abducted and abused younger sister. When the girl is falsely jailed for murder Frieda pits herself against a primitive justice system that shows little mercy. Author Harriet Rochlin once again gives us the experience, superbly rich in the details of sight, sounds, taste and smells, of living in an earlier, harsher time. Excellent writing.

I have been reading everything I can find about the gray whale since I am visiting them in San Ignacio, Baja, Mexico in early February. I found this book to be the most informative for someone who is truly interested in how gray whale conservation evolved especially from the standpoint of how politics influences conservation efforts. Fortunately for the gray whale, the Mexican government had enough proponents to stop the Mitsubishi salt mining from expanding. And Mexico is the ONLY COUNTRY which has outlawed gray whale harvesting. If you are visting the gray whales in Baja, this is a definite must read!

I just returned from touring Baja and experiencing the magnificent gray whale. Serge Dedina spent a significant amount of time researching the content; he succinctly conveys the history of politics and conservation in Baja California in this book. After visiting the same places he lived, and experiencing the people, environment and Gray Whale, I can attest to the fact that Dedina's work is dead-on accurate. Reading this will save you months of research. And, if you are fortunate enough to travel to Baja, I can guarantee you will come away wanting more, and wishing you had done your homework.

This book, along with Sightings: The Gray Whales' Mysterious Journey
by Linda Hogan & Brenda Peterson, are required reading for anyone planning to do gray whale watching in Mexico. It is based on the reality of how Mexican politics, not conservationism, determined the perservation of these wonderful animals in Mexico. Most people are not aware that Mexico is the ONLY country in North America that has outlawed gray whale harvesting.

This book combines a captivating portrait of the whales and the people of southern Baja with a well-documented political analysis of the challenges involved in conservation. Plus, it's a great read.

(From Planeta Journal) - For the past several years, one of Mexico's most pressing environmental controversies was whether or not the Mexican government and the Mitsubishi Corporation should develop a new salt mining operation within the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, one of the world's four breeding areas for gray whales. A candid text, Saving the Gray Whale provides an engaging capsule history of whale conservation in Mexico and a timely review of environmental politics.

In fact, the timing could not be more opportune for this book. Within a month of publication, the plans for the salt operation were cancelled. For readers who are only now learning about this issue, this book is an excellent resource.

Saving the Gray Whale is a must-read book for whale watchers and readers interested in Mexican environmental issues. The candid tone stems from the author's travels and research in Baja, not to mention dizzying trips to Mexico City, where the labyrinths of political power stray far from efficiency. The author combines analysis from historical reports, planning meetings and from encounters on the road or from a kayak paddled across San Ignacio Lagoon.

This book is a treasury of little-known facts ("Gray whales are not gray") and a straightforward review of environmental politics in Mexico -- at least as far as the government is concerned. The list of players is a must-read for anyone interested in environmental issues! Unfortunately, it does not have the same depth when it reviews how the conservation groups ("Non-Governmental Organizations") operate. Is the "Grupo de los 100" really Mexico's "most influential" environmental group? Likewise, what do The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund do in Mexico? Reports are kept hush and the author doesn't seem to question the lack of transparency.

This book covers the four years Hilda Faunce spent with her husband, Ken, who was an Indian trader on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. Their wagon trip from Oregon to Covered Waters trading post is an adventure in itself, but the real story is the day to day pre-WWI life as lived by this couple and the Indian families who traded with them. We get an unusually rich glimpse of reservation life through the eyes of a woman whose very wise, competent husband (who speaks Navajo) teaches her the ways of the desert and these people he admires.

By today's standards, Hilda's use of the words "heathen" and "savage" may seem racist, but she spoke without derision and it reflected what was normal vocabulary of the time. Also by today's standard, we might marvel at Hilda's oddly formal relationship with her husband, whose wisdom and skills she clearly respects. In one very dramatic turn of events, she describes Ken's life-threatening illness and how she coped with the loss of his assistance as well as the possibility that he could die. There is never a moment of self-pity in these people's lives; they did their jobs and were dependent upon one another. They expected life to be difficult.

We feel like invisible visitors to the thin shell of a trading post--a perfect analogy for the fragile relationship Ken and Hilda had with the Navajo. They constantly walked the cultural divide that separated them despite their mutually beneficial roles.

This is an account of a woman's journey from the wilds of Oregon to the wilds of Arizona around the turn of the century. These are honest and simply told tales of life on the frontier told with an innocence and freshness that captures the reader. This is a western classic.

I couldn't put this book down. I felt as though i was alongside the wagon on it's way from Oregon towards the "Four Corners", and with Hilda & Ken through life at their trading post. Early 1900's life on Navajo Land was anything but simple. Hilda's writings carry you with her through suspense, joys, dancing, humour, births, sickness, deaths, everything we experience now, but as a white woman in an Indian world in a time when life was much more basic, survival was difficult & and instant gratification didn't exist...I loved it!

The third installment of Living Voices of the Past is another wonderful history lesson!

Hilda Faunce leaves her comfortable Seattle, Washington, home to journey to the Southwest and the Navajo reservation with her husband in 1914. While one may think that everybody had cars back then, the Faunce's made their way in the manner of the original pioneers: by wagon.

Hilda's journey is not so much a journal of her trip as it is her life on the reservation between 1914 and 1918. Hilda's writings are indeed an historical eye-opener.

First, there is the problem with the language; then the protocol; and the normal daily variances of two races trying to live side-by-side. Cultural diversity may be a late-twentieth-century term, but the fact is that many in America were already experiencing this phenomenon.

The entire journal is mesmerizing; Hilda uses very descriptive language to convey the sights and sounds of the unusual customs and landscapes that she encounters that transfers the listener to reservation life during the second decade of the twentieth century.

Two aspects were particularly telling of a different culture: contending with a white-man initiated illness and the onset of World War I.

The Navajo's were forced to face and contend with small pox, a deadly disease they had never known until the white man arrived. Many of Hilda's new friends died, devastating the young woman.

Newspapers were a rarity and treat on the reservation, so Hilda did not know much of what was going on outside her and her husband's little trading post. While the world was trying to blow itself to smithereens, the Faunce's and the Indians were trying to make a living by mainly trading...especially furs and foods.

Desert Wife is an important historical document that from which we can all learn tolerance and the need to just get along!

Hilda Faunce Wetherill uses pseudonyms for some people and sites in this book and the editor does not call that to our attention. The name of the trading post she describes as 'Covered Water Trading Post' is actually Black Mountain Trading Post about 20 miles west of Chinle, Arizona. She refers to Lorenzo Hubbell Sr. as 'Mr Taylor' and his daughter, Barbard Hubbell Goodman, as 'Mrs. Gray.' She also refers to the Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona, as 'lugontale.' (See pages 125-126 and 144-145, "Indian Trader- The Life and Times of J. L. Hubbell", Martha Blue,2000. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing Company).

She mentions that her husband bought the trading post but, in fact, she and her husband managed the Black Mountain Trading Post for Lorenzo Hubbell Sr. who bought the post in 1914. The Hubbell family continued to own the post after Lorenzo Hubbell's death in 1930 and they operated it until 1937. (see page 284, Appendix Two, "Indian Trader - The Life and Times of J. L. Hubbell", Martha Blue, 2000. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing Company)