Oklahoma Books

This book is an incredible account of the life and times of Mary Jemison, a white woman taken captive during the French and Indian War and adopted into the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois in western New York. This tale covers her more than 70 years living among them through many of the most vital years of the long history of the Iroquois Confederacy.

In November 1823, when she was in her 80s, Mary Jemison, at the urging of many of the friendly local inhabitants, gave her amazing life story to James Seaver to publish for posterity. Though his truthfulness in some details of that account has often been called into question, this book is one of the most important and complete of any of the Indian captivity narratives to come out of the period between the French and Indian War and the War of 1812, which most historians mark as the end of the period of influence of the Eastern Woodland tribes. This account gives unequalled insight into the Seneca Indians and their ways including religion, food, hunting, warfare, culture, etc.

Mary had many opportunities to leave the Indians and return to white civilization but chose not to do so and thus was witness to some of the most amazing events in the history of her adopted people. Her tale is important to not only historians and ethnologists, but to the general public itself as it is a truly amazing story of triumph and tragedy for a proud people struggling to survive in the face of overwhelming odds as a young United States continued to expand, forever extinguishing their way of life.

The narrative is fascinating reading, both in terms of the history revealed in the words of Mary Jemison and in terms of James Seaver who gives us his own version of her story. The effect is a layering of historical periods. With the help of the editing, you can peer through and see not only the period of Mary Jemison's captivity, but also the prejudices of the following time. An interesting example of the simultaneous respect and loathing with which the early settlers viewed the native inhabitants. I first read the narrative in high school, and would recommend it for young and old readers alike.

They say if you visit New York State you will find her descendants; many native-americans have her last name. Taken captive; her parents killed - Mary becomes part of a native-american family. She married a Delaware (Lenape) warrior, with whom she was very content and has many children. This is a dramatic, true story, told in her own words. She is in her 80's, and reminisces about her unusual life.

This is a well written historical account of Pontiac's War, from an author who has just recently passed away. Highly recommend.

Finally, the third book that I have read on Pontiac's war with the British is a charm. Unlike one book that was a historical novel, and somewhat fantastic in its portrayals of what happened, and a more recent book that was a boring scholarly read, this one is believable, with many sources identified, and interesting to read. Some new ideas were also brought to light for me in reading this book. First, although this is known as Pontiac's War, Pontiac only led the attacks and siege of Detroit. And, this part of the war was not successful. He had no involvement with the taking of the other British forts, and towards the end of the war, he was despised by his fellow Indians, resulting in his murder at a young age. Second, at the end of this war, an uprising of settlers in the Allegheny region occurred that was a precursor to the American revolution. This occurred as a direct result of Pontiac's War showing the connection between this war and the Revolution. One of the highlights of the book is the battle of Bushy Run where Bouquet with a tired and sick army is attacked by the Indians, but through trickery defeats them, resulting in the only defeat of an Indian army by the British. There are a lot of these interesting anecdotes in this book highlighting a book that is well worth the read for an individual interested in the colonial period and the wars with the Indians.

Never Come to Peace Again is written in a reader-friendly style so often lost on historians. It appears meticulously researched which is necessary for this often overlooked topic. The book incredibly ties Pontiac's war with the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War.

Sadly, Arthur Hertzberg is nearing the end of a distinguished career. There are few like him anymore. Jews: The Essence and Character of a People helps us understand why people react to Hertzberg in the way they do. This eye-opening books is his magnum opus. An understanding of Jews and the Jewish people that comes from a lifetime's work is presented here in a way that cannot help but get people to think and, most important, to react.

Thanks also to Aron Hirt-Manheimer, whose skillful editing and probing questions brought out the best in Arthur Hertzberg. Bravo to both of them!

An extremely enjoyable thought provoking book. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down until I was finished. This book acts as a "Forschpice", an appetiser to futher learning. It let's you in the door. It introduces the reader to ideas and concepts, people and heroes throughout Jewish history.

No book can condense Jewish history, ideas and culture into a mere 300 pages, and this book does not pretend to do so. What "Jews, the essence and character of a people", does do is introduce the reader to the Jewish concepts of: "choseness", "outsider" and "factionalism" and how various persona in the Jewish history have played their role within these concepts.

For instance, no one can condense Spinoza to a mere 3-5 pages and think that they've told you all there is to know about Spinoza. What "Jews" does do is introduce the reader to Spinoza, makes one think about Spinoza, where did he fit in th! ! e "Jewish Character". And others. It is the reader's responsibility to continue the journey through further readings and study.

After years of study, whether in Yeshiva or the University, or lifelong readings of Jewish history, philosophy and religion this book has shown me in a wonderful way that there is still much more to learn and much more to do.

In a talk I gave after my conversion to Judaism, I said I feel like I am a Jew born in a goy's body. Beyond that, it was difficult for me to understand exactly why I converted from Christian fundamentalism to Judaism, much less try to explain it to someone else. "Jews" has helped me to understand my own journey because it gets into the very essence of Judaism. It points out clearly how and why Jews are different. This difference goes all the way back to Abraham. It continues today. I'm sure all Jews won't agree with the aspects of being chosen, factious, and other, but it sums up my own Jewishness. I'm glad the authors took the time to write this important book.

This little book provides the reader with a basic history of the Powatan starting with a bit prior to first contact with europeans (ironicly the Spanish) to Jamestown (proving ample insights into the minds of the cultures involved) to the modern age, including their experiences of the racial Jim Crow nonsence of the South. Nothing spectacular just the bare and basic facts. I did find the comparison of how the Powatans fared in comparison to the Tribes of New England most impressive.

Most informative and filling for the mind.

A good book to have for those interested in the region, or just the story of Jamestown and the beginning of America.

As the previous reviewer said, this book does a wonderful job examing the history of the Powhatana Confederation of Virgina through the past four centuries. Often forgotten about by the American public at large the Powhatans (actually several different Algonquian speaking Nations joined together into a single Confederacy) played a major role in US history almost from the beginning. Indeed, as the title suggests, Pocahontas herself was one of their most well known members.

Starting with an examination of pre-contact Powhatan life and culture, Rountree goes on to examine the first meetings between the Chickahominies and the Spanish conquistadors, early encounters with the British settlers, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and Indian removal. Especially interesting are the last couple chapters which focus on Indian rights activism in the last century. The Powhatan (like any of the other First Nations) never went away and have had to struggle to gain their own reservation, and even federal recognition. The book ends with a wonderfully long and detailed bibliography.

This book really tells of their struggles and triumphs, and more than anything else I would say that this book gives a wonderful background for understanding where the peoples of the Powhatan Confederation have come from. Anyone with an interest in Native American studies should definately check out this book and the others in the Civilization of the American Indians series.

Being a descendant of the Wicocomico Indian Tribe, a chiefdom of the Powhatan Empire and a 7th great grandson of King William Taptico of the above tribe; Ms Rountree's book took me on a trip back into time and verified much of my previous research into my Native American Heritage.

This was a well written book on a subject that has been neglected for years. It discusses the terrible clash between Colonial America and the Powhatan Empire; a period that set the tone for the treatment of Native Americans in America for years to come and continues today. Considering the poor records that Colonial America maintained, Ms Rountree did an exceptional job in uncovering long lost information and at last brought to light the treatment the Powhatans received at the hands of Colonial America. The period of 1607 thru 1775 was the Powhatans "Wounded Knee". Ms Rountree did an excellent job in bringing to light much of the injustices done to the Powhatans.

For the Powhatan Empire researcher,this is a book that should be on your shelf.

Very well researched, very readable. I bought the book originally because I was interested in the period, and was glad I did.

This is one of the most well-researched books on the Federal period of our country that has been written. It has become the "bible" of anyone interested in this turbulent period of our nation's history. If you want to know anything about the settlement of the Northwest Territory, this is the book to read. It has a lot of historical detail in it, but it is still a very readable book. I use it for reference all of the time, living is one of the historical towns mentioned in the book

Wiley Sword has written the definitive book on one of the most important chapters of our national history; a chapter that has unaccountably remained obscure and understudied despite its overwhelming importance to the development of the United States. The Indian War of 1790 to 1795 was an important postscript to the Revolution, involving undefeated belligerents and a continuing, undeclared cold war with Britain. It was central to the eventual development of a professional, standing army in the United States, an idea that had previously been anathema to many Americans who preferred the idea of national defense through state militias. It contained the worst single defeat of an American army in the 100 years of war between the United States and the Native tribes, a defeat that dwarfed Custer's much more famous one, and was comparable to the Braddock Massacre of the French and Indian War. And it was the single most important action in the one hundred year history of war between the United States and Native American tribes. It marked the best chance the tribes ever had to gain their objectives, and their eventual lose of that war was a mortal body blow to the tribes, making all their proceeding wars little more than the inevitable death throes of their cause. Finally, it cleared the way for the American settlement of the Northwest Territory; modern Ohio, Indiana, Illinios, Michigan, and Wisconsin - it created the heartland of America.

In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the British not only gave up their claims to the thirteen colonies, but ceded the vast track of land beyond them that would become known as the Northwest Territory - the homeland of many of the tribes that had been their allies during the war. The treaty made no provisions for or any acknowledgement of their former allies, the tribes that inhabited that land. Americans prepared to expand their nation westward, and settlers began pouring into the Ohio country. The undefeated tribes were determined to protect their homeland from the encroachments of an alien civilization, and began to resist with all possible force. The British, seeing in this an opportunity to maintain their influence and their profitable fur trade, as well as a possibility of regaining some of their lost territory, broke their treaty agreements, and continued to maintain several frontier forts on American territory from which they provisioned the tribes and encouraged their resistance to the Americans. For the next seven years, intrepid American settlers floated down the Ohio River to make a life in Indian country, and determined Natives resisted them ferociously and effectively, until the Washington administration decided that they must move decisively against the tribes to make continued westward expansion of the nation possible.

Sword's book effectively captures all the elements of the war, the drama leading to it, and its aftermath. He examines it not only from the American perspective, but from the point of view of the tribes and the British as well, without injecting value judgments. He chronicles not only the military action, but the often flawed and usually deceitful diplomacy that was carried on, and the goals and strategies of all three of the players involved. His descriptions of the battles are riveting, and he captures a sense of the times and the people involved in the action believably. While his writing here had not yet developed to the full potential of his later books, it is still a cut above the typical fare of scholarly histories, and anyone at all interested in the subject should find reading his book enjoyable, as well as enlightening. I know of no other single book that details this crucial chapter of American history half as well as does Sword's book, and I recommend it highly.

Theo Logos

Red River Prosecutor recalls the true incidents of the wild and woolly 1960's and 70's in Love County, Oklahoma. The stories hold the reader spellbound with their intensity and their realness. I know because I was a teenager who grew up there and lived in the community during those crazy times. I can assure the readers that all the events are accurate. Most of the people described in the book I knew personally. Judge Bacon masterfully recalls the personalties with great detail and as I look back some 30 years the events are brought back vividly. This is better than any fiction fairytale of crime and its consequences. You will never regret your time spent with this account of taming rural Oklahoma.

Today a retired Settlement Conference Judge for the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Ken Bacon, the author is an author with a unique life story. His collection of personal memories is not some staid history of mid-20th century legal procedures. Red River Prosecutor is the two-fisted tale of one man's fight to wrench order out of the chaos in the toughest are of America's wildest state. What sets Red River Prosecutor apart is the author. The product of a broken home, he fought through an abandoned and parentless childhood, survived the bloody and violent oilfields of Kansas and Oklahoma and by sheer gut's, went on to become the Chief Judge for all Courts of Appeal in Oklahoma. Red River Prosecutor is all true, it's graphic and it is real life. The book review in the Oklahoma City newspapaer The Daily Oklahoman, April 7, 1996 said it best: "This is a TV miniseries, for sure. Even better if it could star the author."

Red River Prosecutor recalls the true incidents of the wild and woolly 1960's and 70's in Love County, Oklahoma. The stories hold the reader spellbound with their intensity and their realness. I know because I was a teenager who grew up there and lived in the community during those crazy times. I can assure the readers that all the events are accurate. Most of the people described in the book I knew personally. Judge Bacon masterfully recalls the personalties with great detail and as I look back some 30 years the events are brought back vividly. This is better than any fiction fairytale of crime and its consequences. You will never regret your time spent with this account of taming rural Oklahoma.

It is very nearly the end of his book before Professor Richard Slotkin justifies the "violence" in his title Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600 - 1860. His final thesis is that the myth that the best Americans are violent is partial at best and has been misused by politicians to justify imperialist adventures from our own western plains to the 1898 war with Spain to Viet-Nam.

Most of the book is about the literary foundations behind the myth of the quintessential American being a hunter who enters a wilderness (the early American forests, the depths of his own dark mind) to endure an initiation of hunting, fishing, captivity, rescues and the "Eucharistic" union of hunter and a prey (the hunted) that is respected, killed and devoured.

Herman Melville's MOBY-DICK was not (like John Filson's Colonel Boone) initially popular. But in time it became "The American National Epic" (p. 538). Slotkin's ultimate conclusion is that there must be something to these intertwined myths of America but they are either inadequate to the real American character or false -- and certainly harmful as guides to behavior.

The search for American myths culminates before 1860 in the deep probings of Henry Thoreau and Herman Melville and the more fervid but less cerebral expressions by Walt Whitman. Thoreau took from Cooper and other myth-embellishers a notion of literary creativity as a bloody seizure of truth held by a foe or by prey.

The research into American myths begins with the Pilgrim/Puritan experiences of the 1620s to 1690s in hostile, wilderness New England, moves into literary comings to terms with those experiences in narratives and sermons and then into increasingly secular and decidedly fictional conceptions by writers like Parson Weems (on George Washington), John Filson (on Daniel Boone) and James Fenimore Cooper (on Natty Bumppo, the Leatherstocking).

A sickness entered popular American culture when Davy Crockett, hunter-wastrel, supreme waster of natural resources, became a mythic hero. Crockett, as America's Aeneas, was not a builder, but a destroyer, a conquistador (p. 555). When a mythic male hunter is hero and dark wilderness is his stage, then left behind are woman, family, civilization and towns. All a Boone, Crockett or Bumppo can do is hunt, kill, eat then resume hunting, killing and eating. This becomes the recommended American mythic cycle. And often, as with Captain Ahab and the white whale, the prey is simply unhuntable (p. 557) but is nonetheless pursued to the end of time.

As for the captivity/rescue/reassimilation into society dimension of America's myths, "...rescue from dark events is never complete" (564). Our foe was always the Indian or the pristine forest. And we only recognized and appreciated him when we slew him.

Lovers of James Fenimore Cooper will naturally linger over Slotkin's Chapter 13 "Man Without a Cross: The Leatherstocking Myth (1823 - 1841," pp. 466 - 516). Cooper skillfully blended materials from English and Scottish (Sir Walter Scott) romanticism with popular literature from New England and the new West (p. 468). Sir Walter in his introduction to ROB ROY had compared the famous Scot outlaw Rob Roy McGregor to red Indians for readers surprised that "a character like his, blending the wild virtues, the subtle policy, and unrestrained license of an American Indian, was flourishing in Scotland during the Augustan age of Queen Anne and George I." William Wordsworth's poem "Rob Roy's Grave" also catches a likeness to the future Leatherstocking. Cooper did much more than mechanically flesh or draw out the Boone myths and others, though he did make them his point of departure before probing their metaphors of the dark human heart.

Professor Slotkin credits Moravian missionary to the Delawares, Rev. J. G. Heckewelder, for the inspiration of the scene in THE PIONEERS where Natty, Chingachgook and Uncas pursue and kill a deer swimming in a lake. This captured a well known creation myth. Slotkin also gives Cooper much credit for hard literary pioneering which made possible even deeper insights of Hawthorne, Melville and Thoreau.

Professor Slotkin absolves the typical American from being the stoic killer detected by D. H. Lawrence. But Slotkin also blames at least some of America's myths for glorifying anti-environmental, destructive hunter-killers.

This long book is a pleasure to read, is a well-written historical review. Some of its final conclusions do not, however, seem firmly entailed by 99% of the well-chosen words that preceded them. -OOO-

1999 marked an "average year" for North American fixation on violence, sexual imagery, and an added combination of technological paranoia as a result of the new millennium. For the most part, television screens tuned in to the daily media circus showcasing the latest "experts" on youth violence, gang activity, and the Psychic Friends Network. The student shooting at Colorado's Columbine high school, however, gripped the nation and left the "experts" scrambling for explanations, counselors, and an array of gun-control measures.

Of all the propositions these so-called experts put forth, none discussed the historical culture of violence that has become the foundation of our country's consciousness. Instead of real explanations and solutions, we endured Senator Diane Feinstein and other "politicians" anxious to defend their domain at the public dole. Many failed to connect the bullets flying in American classrooms with the bombs dropping on civilians in Kosovo. Indeed, they missed the forest for the trees when instead of searching for the root cause of the problem (the culture of violence), they resorted to simplistic cosmetic trimming (more gun control). Richard Slotkin's monograph on the mythology of the American frontier examines the origins of this "frontier mentality" and the making of our national character.

In Regeneration through Violence, Richard Slotkin argues that the North American frontier mythology is a major force in shaping the national character of the country. By building on the theoretical constructs of Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis," Slotkin argues that the frontier was not so much a "regeneration" of democratic principles as much as it was one of violence. Unlike Turner's notion of the frontier as a European and Socialist cleanser, Slotkin offers a more palatable thesis by incorporating the influence and conflict with various Native American populations. The conclusions, nonetheless, are not that simple. American settlers were "not simply an idiosyncratic offshoot of English civilization" but became "Americanized" or "Indianized" in their contact with the indigenous peoples of the continent. By tracing the origins of violence and freedom Slotkin concludes that various European and North American mythologies influenced the early settlers before, during, and after Native American contact.[1] Europeans who settled on the North American continent disembarked with an assortment of adopted ideas and mythologies from their native homeland(s). In this particular context, Slotkin's analysis on European cultural baggage is worth quoting at length:



"The Europeans who settled the New World possessed at the time of their arrival a mythology derived from the cultural history of their home countries and responsive to the psychological and social needs of their old culture. Their new circumstances forced new perspectives, new self-concepts, and new world concepts on the colonists and made them see their cultural heritage from angles of vision that non-colonists would find peculiar. The internal tension between the Moira and Themis elements in their European mythologies (and the psychological tensions that is the source of this myth-duality) found an objective correlative in the racial, religious, and cultural opposition of the American Indians and colonial Christians. This racial-cultural conflict pointed up and intensified the emotional difficulties attendant on the colonists' attempt to adjust to life in the wilderness. The picture was further complicated for them by the political and religious demands made on them by those who remained in Europe, as well as by the colonists' own need to affirm-for themselves and for the home folks-that they had not deserted European civilization for American savagery." [pg. 15]

Much like Reginald Horsman's monograph on the origins of American racial Anglo-Saxonism, Slotkin understands that European settlers did not approach the New World with a cultural clean slate; or as Professor Buzzanco would say: tabula rasa. Europeans carried with them centuries of cultural baggage and transported those ideas to the American continent, particularly the concept of Volkgeist.[Horsman, 25-42]
The new settlers underwent the logical process of a cultural tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis, or "times change and we change with them." Racial prejudice, however, was not the only cultural and social "element" present at the time of contact. Religious nuances and distorted comparisons between Catholicism and Native American blood rites provided an added cultural wedge between the two. Slotkin believes that many of the above mentioned traits found fertile ground in North American literature, specifically in the accounts of Indian wars and captivity narratives. According to Slotkin,

"The cultural anxieties and aspirations of the colonists found their most dramatic and symbolic portrayal in the accounts of the Indian wars. The Indian war was a uniquely American experience. Moreover, it pitted the English Puritan colonists against a culture that was antithetical to their own in most significant aspects. They could emphasize their Englishness by setting their civilization against Indian barbarism; they could suggest their own superiority to the home English by exalting their heroism in battle, the peculiar danger of their circumstances, and the holy zeal for English Christian expansion with which they preached to or shot at the savages. It was within this genre of colonial Puritan writing that the first American mythology took shape-a mythology in which the hero was the captive or victim of devilish American savages and in which his (or her) heroic quest was for religious conversion and salvation. As their experience in and love for America grew, however--and as non-Puritans entered the American book-printing trade-the early passion for remaining "non-American" (or non-Indian) became confused with the love the settlers bore the land and their desire to gain intimate knowledge of and emotional title to it. If the first American mythology portrayed the colonist as a captive or a destroyer of Indians, the subsequent acculturated versions of the myth showed him growing closer to the Indian and the wild land. New versions of the hero emerged, characters whose role was that of mediating between civilization and savagery, white and red. The yeoman farmer was one of these types, as were the explorer or surveyor and. later, the naturalist."[pg. 21]

The European contrast between civilization and nature found other outlets to vent differences between "civility" and "savagery." Myths such as the ones mentioned above facilitated the aggressive westward expansion of the nineteenth century, particularly during the U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848). Additionally, questions regarding early captivity narratives and the fictitious nuances that they engender pose interesting comparisons between those of the early Spanish settlers in New Mexico.

Placed against Hietala's monograph on "manifest design," however, Slotkin's study on the mythology of the American frontier is complimented by additional factors absent from his own book: diplomacy, politics, partisanship, economics, divisions between free labor and slave labor, and logistics. In defense of Slotkin, however, the author is primarily interested in excavating the origins of North American frontier mythology whereas Hietala's interest focuses on the question of "Manifest Destiny" during the Jacksonian period.

The benefit of Slotkin, in my opinion, has more to do with his understanding of the North American mentality and how those psychological underpinnings influence decisions outside of our own cultural distinctions, i.e. political, economic, diplomatic, and otherwise. More importantly, and like I've mentioned before, the question over mythology is, in my estimation, one of the fundamental obstacles obscuring our peregrino (peregrinate) to an open-minded discussion regarding many of our current social, economic, and political issues. The question over how mythology becomes part of our national character requires a crucial understanding of not only the origins of North American mythology itself, but also the ability to propose an alternative, practical model to take its place. The latter, in my opinion, is much harder than the former.

Slotkin analyzes the popular texts of early American life--"capitivity narratives" of women abducted by Native Americans, dime novels, etc.--to show how early Americans came to rationalize the gap between their religious ideology and the reality of the wilderness they were meant to transform into the "city on the hill." His careful study of the documents seems almost academic at first, and is sometimes rough going, but when I let his argument sink in (as a student in Slotkin's undergraduate class which used this book as its text), it profoundly and permanently transformed the way I saw American culture and history. This book is revelatory for anyone interested in "American Studies," the creation of our national mythology, and in what makes America America.

If you truly want to understand American culture this book is essential. It's erudite, detailed, patient, yet lively, examination of the themes of early American life and literature are revelatory. I have no doubt it will become a "classic" of American scholarship.

This book is the authority on where to raft/kayak/canoe - you get all the info you need about drop-off and pick-up points, plus mile-by-mile information. Great book - I wish the authors would revise their last edition (2000)! Still, the 2000 edition is very helpful. Highly recommended to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas canoeists/kayakers!

This book is the perfect guide to Texas rivers. It gives a description of each river, including different runs on each. It provides information on camping in the area, where to rent a canoe, rapid class categories, phone numbers for flow information and myriad other details that give you the confidence to literally pick a trip from the book and do it! I'm buying my second copy.

This Essential Reference book opens with detailed local fish population info and photos. Statewide canoe/paddling clubs are listed next along with recommended equipment diagrams & checklists and a glossary of useful river/paddling terms.(worthy of purchase alone) THEN you get an alphebetically listed, turn by turn, comprehensive diagram and description of multiple rivers in 3 states. Enough said? Too bad this is getting so hard to find!

All too many Route 66 books focus on the Kitsch and the primary colors one could see on the Road, and are written in a jokey, 'weren't people in the old days a hoot' style that wears thin in a few pages.

This book by contrast, takes a more serious look at the Mother Road. The photos are by turns otherworldy and 'down home' and the writing is crisp, factual and engaging. I found out more than I ever expected about the Road, its rise and fall, and the people on the road and in the towns along its path.

It's reminiscent in many ways of some of Studs Turkel's oral histories, as the people 'of and on' the road tell their stories in first person, but here you also have the advantage of the journalistic and historical perspective the writer offers, and the undeniable impact of the photos, which tell stories that mere words cannot.

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Some quotes from press reviews of the book include:

Wall Street Journal
'...while the new interstates are faster and safer, it is impossible not to miss old Route 66. Fortunately, the words and pictures of this delightful book preserve the memories of a road that ran through everyone's life.'

Library Journal
'Route 66-the late, lamented American Main Street that ran from Chicago to the Pacific-is here given life once again. Those who served its travelers for nearly 50 years (selling Indian artifacts, 'hamburgs,' and chunks of petrified wood, or renting rooms, patching tires, and digging the wounded out of head-on collisions) offer memories both enthusiastic and touching. . .
An enjoyable and rewarding book on a uniquely important road that turned the heat up on the American melting pot.'

Arizona Highways
'Susan Croce Kelly and Quinta Scott spent seven years traveling the route from end to end, interviewing and photographing the people and structures that gave old 66 its flavor. The text is carefully researched and well written, and the 93 photographs (appropriately, black and white) provide convincing images of ordinary people and places lacking the glamour of those at either end of the 2,200-mile-long line.'

Booklist
'The evocative photographs and interviews pay tribute to thousands of small businesses and the people who fueled, sheltered, and entertained millions of travelers. This is a fascinating study of individual entrepreneurs and the growth of advertising, as well as a paean to a vanished way of life.'

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I recommend this book to anyone interested in histories of the 20th century, the impact of the automobile in American life, and to anyone who appreciates fine photography.

I really enjoyed this book as it was one of my fisrt to purchase about Route 66. This book didn't cover only the road but also took you from town to town and introduced you to the People. Great photography added to the experience. This is one book I read over and over.

This books contains all that is needed to make the reader -or viewer- want to travel the road, even just by looking at the pictures. It isn't called a photographic essay for nothing. The text is more social oriented and is probably one way to look at the 20th century and its cultural heritage along Historic Route 66. Those readers going travel old 66 might be a little bit disappointed that it does not give many clues to find the locations easily. This is a book about an icon on its own terms.

A must in your library if you're interested in Route 66.

She's Tricky Like Coyote: Annie Miner Peterson, An Oregon Coast Indian Woman by Lionel Youst (an independent scholar specializing in the history and anthropology of the Pacific Northwest) is the story of Annie Miner Peterson's remarkable life. An impressive biography showcasing Annie's hardships, determined endeavors and many accomplishments, She's Tricky Like Coyote carries the reader through the remarkable story of her 79 years of life as related through interviews with relatives, revealed in anthropological studies, and drawing upon a short autobiography, all of which combine in creating a unique story of a very special Native American woman of her times. Volume 224 in "The Civilization of the American Indian" series and a welcome contribution to academic library Native American Studies and Women's Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists, She's Tricky Like Coyote is very highly recommended reading, especially for students of the Western coastal region's Native American tribal history and culture.

This book was wonderful and we need more like it. The Indian tales of Oregon and Northern California are mostly unknown by peoples outside of anthropology and archaeology, and these stories need to be told. It must have been incredibly hard to be an Indian during those times and we all should question our own history. The book is worth buying and was inspirational.

Thanks to Lionel Youst, Annie Miner Peterson's life story has been preserved. One of the last of the Coos Indians, she lived for 79 years in western Oregon and witnessed the demise of her culture. This remarkable narrative captures some of who she was and how she lived, enabling Annie to pass along some of the accumulated experiences of generations of her ancestors.