Oklahoma Books

Award-winning military history author and U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Grenier presents The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760, an in-depth study of the impact that fifty years of warfare in a remote corner of North America had upon the larger competition between the British and French empires during the eighteenth century. Written specifically from a military history perspective, The Far Reaches of Empire chronicles how Britons and Yankees waged an efficient and effective counterinsurgency that eventually overwhelmed Acadian, Indian, and French resistance in Nova Scotia. Neither side was above using brutal or ruthless tactics; guerilla war was also practiced, well before America used it during the Revolution. A heavily researched study, featuring detailed notes, a bibliography, and an index for quick reference, enthusiastically recommended for North American military history shelves.

This is a solid, serviceable biography of the great Jesuit missionary of the West. Carriker recounts and evaluates the full life of the man, paying particular attention to De Smet's role as an intermediary between Indians and whites. De Smet was fearless, energetic, and fair - traits that won the respect of just about all who knew him.

De Smet was born in Belgium in 1801, came to the US at the age of 20, entered a Jesuit order near Baltimore, and was ordained in 1827 in St. Louis. After a four-year return to Europe, in 1838 his wish to become a missionary to the Indians was granted. Two years later he went to the Flathead country in the northern Rockies via the outward bound supply caravan from St. Louis, attending the 1840 Green River rendezvous. For the next several years he spent months traversing the Rockies, administering to the spiritual needs of the Indians, followed by journeys back to Europe to promote his work (he made over a dozen trips across the ocean to Europe). In 1845 he helped the Blackfeet and Flathead Indians reach a peace agreement, and (according to legend, probably not 100% true) met Brigham Young near Council Bluffs and convinced him of the benefits of settling near the Great Salt Lake. In 1851, he was at the great Fort Laramie council held on Horse Creek, helping to negotiate between the various Indian tribes present. Although De Smet was on hand at a number of peace councils, his greatest accomplishment regarding Indian affairs might have been in the summer of 1868 when he personally met Sitting Bull and got him to accept the Fort Laramie treaty. He died in St. Louis in 1873 of Bright's disease.

De Smet authored four books, the first, LETTERS AND SKETCHES: WITH A NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S RESIDENCE AMONG THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, was published in 1843 and was his most popular book, going through numerous editions and many different translations in Europe. He was able to raise money for his missions with all his books. One of the most traveled men in the pre-Civil War West (over 180,000 miles), De Smet loved the rugged life of wilderness adventure. Only as an administrator did his talents falter. As a friend to the Indian he was supreme, and he was universally admired.

Carriker's biography is thorough and scholarly (the annotated footnotes are excellent), but not academically dull. He gives a full picture of the man and his work, and the book is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.

The story is dedicated to all of those fine young men and women who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps out of the poverty of the Great Depression, through World War II, through the Korean War, through Vietnam and through the Cold War to become responsible and productive American citizens. This is not a story about the elite heroes praised in Tom Brokaw's book titled, "The Greatest Generation", this is a story about an ordinary country boy who attended his first grade school years in a two room school where two teachers taught 8 grades. It tells about the hard times children of his generation suffered when they were humiliated by being forced to accept welfare because of the impact of the Great Depression on the state of Oklahoma during the late 1920s and 1930s. The story reveals the emotional trauma suffered by families who lost loved ones and whose family members were wounded during World War II. It tells about the behavior of a young boy growing up in a small Oklahoma village after losing his father at the age of 5. The story reveals early boy-girl relationships and the frustrations experienced by adolescents while learning about sex. It tells of the early experiences of Major Taber as an enlisted man serving in the U. S. Army and about his service in a combat zone in the 304th Signal Battalion in 1950-51 during the Korean War. Major Taber describes his major duties as an officer in the United States Air Force in Europe and in the United States. He traces his family genealogy from Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1630 to his present residence in Texas 2001. The major expresses some of his opinions regarding a few of our national social and political issues. The book contains pictures of Major Taber's family and contains brief narratives about their personal lives. The memoirs are humorous, informative and realistic. Major Taber may be the main character in the book but his story is a mirror image of millions of young men and women in his generation who pulled themselves out of poverty into a respectable occupation and have contributed mightily to bringing about the high standards of living that most of us enjoy today.

Definitive look at Kansas land policy in the nineteenth century. Paul Gates examines the selling of Indian lands (the Osage reserve alone consisted of almost 9 million acres), trust lands, and public lands (which were subject to different laws than the Indian lands). He also investigates the virtual land grab conducted by the railroads (Congress's generosity helped); some railroads were "given" up to 50 miles of land on either side of their tracks. Finally he reviews the Homestead Act, "one of the most important land acts in the history of the world," which, by offering free land in 160-acre sections under certain conditions and responsibilities, was supposed to eliminate the land speculators and grand estate builders. Unfortunately, much of the land made available under this act was far from desirable and was distant from main transportation routes and just about all the railroads.

Because of the nature of the book it is filled with policy decisions, economic details, tables of available acreage and prices, etc. But Gates writes with authority and flair, and the book is far from dull. A classic of its kind, and a must-read for anyone interested in how land policies effected settlement in Kansas and all the West.

I bought this book in error, thinking it was the same as the 556-page Final Report based on the work of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee, and funded by private citizens.

But this volume was written by city rescue officials in Oklahoma City. It focuses on the heroic rescue operations conducted afterwards, in minute detail.

To its credit, the book gives a huge amount of information about effects of the explosion, the number of people trapped inside, the number of people rescued, by what time and date, the locations and numbers of rescuers, and so on. This will be useful and interesting to anyone honoring those who risked their lives to save others.

This book is valuable in its own right. It honors the dead, and those who worked to save the living. It's certainly a good companion to Key's Final Report. It's also useful for readers interested in coordinating data available on the attack.

But it doesn't examine questions about perpetrators, motives, and investigations concerning the attacks, all of which still need a lot more answers.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

"The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club". At Los Angeles Airport, a sick looking thug carrying a syringe with bad blood inside it abducts former cop Martin Zolotow using the hypodermic as a weapon. The thug escorts Martin by air to Oklahoma City where two more punks greet him. They take Zolo to Tobias Washington; he blackmails Zolo by threatening to kill a friend if the sleuth fails to rescue his daughter from rival Jimmy McDevitt and the pig farmer's so-called vampires. Zolo works the case, but is triple crossed at every step as the two gang lords compete over illegal drug trafficking.

"The Bikini Bottoms Optional Oyster Bar". Zolo barely survives a dunking in the Gulf of Mexico though he cannot remember why someone would toss him into the sea. Widow Jacob Mathias helps Zolo recover at his place in Apalachicola, Florida. Zolo starts to remember his client Henry McGill wanted him to learn what happened to internet stripper Lena, who the he believes was murdered. Now Zolo struggles to learn how he got embroiled with mobsters wanting him dead starting with the strip joint The Bikini Bottoms Optional Oyster Bar.

These two novellas star an intriguing knight in shining armor sleuth who has memory problems that will remind readers of Memento's Leonard Shelby. Both tales are well written as the hero struggles to keep track of what he knows, which he quickly forgets unless he writes it down (should try a Polaroid). Brian A. Hopkins furbishes a unique private investigator who is one part Boy Scout and one part Noir.

Harriet Klausner

This is a must-have companion book to any serious student of Dante, the Italian Renaissance, or Italy in general.

I used this book in a mythology class project and it was a great help. The book reveals a great deal of the Winnebago tradition through the history detailed in the stories. This book is well worth the money and is a necessary piece to any Native American collection.

This is the most interesting book I've read about the work of newspaper correspondents in the field. While focusing on a handful of campaigns against the Indians in the West mainly during the 1860s-1870s, Knight traces the role of the assigned correspondents who marched with the soldiers, sometimes fought (and died) with them, and somehow wrote the stories and got them back to their respective newspapers under trying conditions.

Although Knight deals with 12 major campaigns between 1866-1891, he centers his attention on chiefly the following:

Crook's campaign against the Paiute in Oregon (1867-68), reported by Joe Wasson of the "Owyhee Avalanche" of Silver City, Idaho;

Custer's attack at the Washita in the winter of 1868, with reporter DeBenneville Keim of the "New York Herald" in tow;

The Modoc War along the California-Oregon border in 1873, attended by a number of reporters, chief among them Edward Fox of the "New York Herald" who interviewed "Captain Jack," the Modoc leader;

Crook fighting the Sioux at the Rosebud in 1876, covered by reporters from Chicago, Denver, and New York;

and Custer again at the Little Big Horn, where Mark Kellogg, claimed by two newspapers, became a hero after being killed along with Custer's men.

Although Knight of course is mainly interested in the newspapermen and what they wrote and how they delivered their stories, he also gives a pretty detailed account of the events being covered. His writing is clear and concise, and he shows how newspaper stories of those times were much different than today: many of them were written in the form of letters to the editor, the writer's own prejudices were usually allowed to stand, and often the writer employed a droll sense of humor in his accounts. At the end of the book Knight traces the life of his newspaper "heroes" beyond the times covered in the book to the conclusion of their careers. It's an interesting and entertaining book. Knight concludes his work by saying that the newspapermen did their jobs well. So does he. Highly recommended.

I got this book because I will be doing work in the Cross Timbers and need to be able to identify what I find there. It is a handy reference of a size that will fit a pocket in my field vest. The book is organized by species and family, and the drawings are very good to help with identification.